1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910822125703321

Autore

Gorra Michael Edward

Titolo

After empire [[electronic resource] ] : Scott, Naipaul, Rushdie / / Michael Gorra

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 1997

ISBN

0-226-30476-0

1-299-10461-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (220 p.)

Disciplina

823/.91409358

Soggetti

English fiction - 20th century - History and criticism

National characteristics, British, in literature

Indic fiction (English) - History and criticism

Anglo-Indian fiction - History and criticism

Decolonization in literature

Imperialism in literature

India In literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- Introduction. After Empire -- 1. The Situation: Paul Scott and The Raj Qwrtet -- 2. V. S. Naipaul: In His Father's House -- 3. The Novel in an Age of Ideology: On the Form of Midnight's Children -- Appendix to Chapter 3. "Burn the Books and Trust the Book": The Satanic Verses, February 1989 -- Conclusion. Notes towards a Redefinition of Englishness -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In After Empire Michael Gorra explores how three novelists of empire-Paul Scott, V. S. Naipaul, and Salman Rushdie-have charted the perpetually drawn and perpetually blurred boundaries of identity left in the wake of British imperialism. Arguing against a model of cultural identity based on race, Gorra begins with Scott's portrait, in The Raj Quartet, of the character Hari Kumar-a seeming oxymoron, an "English boy with a dark brown skin," whose very existence undercuts the belief in an absolute distinction between England and India. He then turns to the opposed figures of Naipaul and Rushdie, the two great novelists of the Indian diaspora. Whereas Naipaul's long and controversial career



maps the "deep disorder" spread by both imperialism and its passing, Rushdie demonstrates that certain consequences of that disorder, such as migrancy and mimicry, have themselves become creative forces. After Empire provides engaging and enlightening readings of postcolonial fiction, showing how imperialism helped shape British national identity-and how, after the end of empire, that identity must now be reconfigured.