05239nam 2200817Ia 450 991077792150332120200520144314.00-231-51086-110.7312/sidd13808(CKB)1000000000772156(EBL)908400(OCoLC)818855912(SSID)ssj0000822969(PQKBManifestationID)12337049(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000822969(PQKBWorkID)10761074(PQKB)10272628(MiAaPQ)EBC908400(DE-B1597)459328(OCoLC)1013948874(OCoLC)979742175(DE-B1597)9780231510868(Au-PeEL)EBL908400(CaPaEBR)ebr10604371(CaONFJC)MIL690475(OCoLC)649278855(EXLCZ)99100000000077215620070220d2008 uy 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrAnxieties of Empire and the fiction of intrigue[electronic resource] /Yumna SiddiqiNew York Columbia University Pressc20081 online resource (303 p.)Description based upon print version of record.1-322-59193-8 0-231-13808-3 Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-268) and index.Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Colonial Anxieties and the Fiction of Intrigue -- 2. Imperial Intrigue in an English Country House -- 3. Sherlock Holmes and "the Cesspool of Empire" -- 4. The Fiction of Counterinsurgency -- 5. Intermezzo -- 6. Police and Postcolonial Rationality in Amitav Ghosh's The Circle of Reason -- 7. "Deep in Blood" -- 8. "The Unhistorical Dead" -- Conclusion "Power Smashes Into Private Lives" -- Notes -- IndexFocusing on late nineteenth- and twentieth-century stories of detection, policing, and espionage by British and South Asian writers, Yumna Siddiqi presents an original and compelling exploration of the cultural anxieties created by imperialism. She suggests that while colonial writers use narratives of intrigue to endorse imperial rule, postcolonial writers turn the generic conventions and topography of the fiction of intrigue on its head, launching a critique of imperial power that makes the repressive and emancipatory impulses of postcolonial modernity visible.Siddiqi devotes the first part of her book to the colonial fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle and John Buchan, in which the British regime's preoccupation with maintaining power found its voice. The rationalization of difference, pronouncedly expressed through the genre's strategies of representation and narrative resolution, helped to reinforce domination and, in some cases, allay fears concerning the loss of colonial power. In the second part, Siddiqi argues that late twentieth-century South Asian writers also underscore the state's insecurities, but unlike British imperial writers, they take a critical view of the state's authoritarian tendencies. Such writers as Amitav Ghosh, Michael Ondaatje, Arundhati Roy, and Salman Rushdie use the conventions of detective and spy fiction in creative ways to explore the coercive actions of the postcolonial state and the power dynamics of a postcolonial New Empire. Drawing on the work of leading theorists of imperialism such as Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, and the Subaltern Studies historians, Siddiqi reveals how British writers express the anxious workings of a will to maintain imperial power in their writing. She also illuminates the ways South Asian writers portray the paradoxes of postcolonial modernity and trace the ruses and uses of reason in a world where the modern marks a horizon not only of hope but also of economic, military, and ecological disaster.English fiction19th centuryHistory and criticismEnglish fiction20th centuryHistory and criticismEnglish fictionSouth Asian authorsHistory and criticismIntrigue in literatureEspionage in literatureLiterature and societyGreat BritainHistory19th centuryLiterature and societyGreat BritainHistory20th centuryImperialism in literaturePostcolonialism in literatureAnxiety in literatureEnglish fictionHistory and criticism.English fictionHistory and criticism.English fictionSouth Asian authorsHistory and criticism.Intrigue in literature.Espionage in literature.Literature and societyHistoryLiterature and societyHistoryImperialism in literature.Postcolonialism in literature.Anxiety in literature.823/.809358Siddiqi Yumna1509683MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910777921503321Anxieties of Empire and the fiction of intrigue3741766UNINA