04743nam 2200877Ia 450 991077772940332120200520144314.01-282-08729-097866120872951-4008-2683-710.1515/9781400826834(CKB)1000000000756235(EBL)445456(OCoLC)355601218(SSID)ssj0000266386(PQKBManifestationID)11210269(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000266386(PQKBWorkID)10304089(PQKB)10392328(OCoLC)857638250(MdBmJHUP)muse36175(DE-B1597)446286(OCoLC)979576701(DE-B1597)9781400826834(Au-PeEL)EBL445456(CaPaEBR)ebr10284213(CaONFJC)MIL208729(MiAaPQ)EBC445456(EXLCZ)99100000000075623520050330d2005 uy 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrUtopian generations[electronic resource] the political horizon of twentieth-century literature /Nicholas BrownCourse BookPrinceton, NJ Princeton University Pressc20051 online resource (248 p.)Translation/transnationDescription based upon print version of record.0-691-12211-3 0-691-12212-1 Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-230) and index. Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part 1. Subjectivity -- Part 2. History -- Part 3. Politics -- Notes -- IndexUtopian Generations develops a powerful interpretive matrix for understanding world literature--one that renders modernism and postcolonial African literature comprehensible in a single framework, within which neither will ever look the same. African literature has commonly been seen as representationally naïve vis-à-vis modernism, and canonical modernism as reactionary vis-à-vis postcolonial literature. What brings these two bodies of work together, argues Nicholas Brown, is their disposition toward Utopia or "the horizon of a radical reconfiguration of social relations.? Grounded in a profound rethinking of the Hegelian Marxist tradition, this fluently written book takes as its point of departure the partial displacement during the twentieth century of capitalism's "internal limit" (classically conceived as the conflict between labor and capital) onto a geographic division of labor and wealth. Dispensing with whole genres of commonplace contemporary pieties, Brown examines works from both sides of this division to create a dialectical mapping of different modes of Utopian aesthetic practice. The theory of world literature developed in the introduction grounds the subtle and powerful readings at the heart of the book--focusing on works by James Joyce, Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Ford Madox Ford, Chinua Achebe, Wyndham Lewis, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Pepetela. A final chapter, arguing that this literary dialectic has reached a point of exhaustion, suggests that a radically reconceived notion of musical practice may be required to discern the Utopian desire immanent in the products of contemporary culture.Translation/transnation.English literature20th centuryHistory and criticismPolitics and literatureGreat BritainHistory20th centuryPolitics and literatureAfricaHistory20th centuryAfrican literature20th centuryHistory and criticismComparative literatureEnglish and AfricanComparative literatureAfrican and EnglishModernism (Literature)Great BritainModernism (Literature)AfricaPolitics in literatureUtopias in literatureEnglish literatureHistory and criticism.Politics and literatureHistoryPolitics and literatureHistoryAfrican literatureHistory and criticism.Comparative literatureEnglish and African.Comparative literatureAfrican and English.Modernism (Literature)Modernism (Literature)Politics in literature.Utopias in literature.820.9358Brown Nicholas1971-1378159MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910777729403321Utopian generations3840295UNINA