LEADER 05239nam 2200817Ia 450 001 9910777921503321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-231-51086-1 024 7 $a10.7312/sidd13808 035 $a(CKB)1000000000772156 035 $a(EBL)908400 035 $a(OCoLC)818855912 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000822969 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12337049 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000822969 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10761074 035 $a(PQKB)10272628 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC908400 035 $a(DE-B1597)459328 035 $a(OCoLC)1013948874 035 $a(OCoLC)979742175 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780231510868 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL908400 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10604371 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL690475 035 $a(OCoLC)649278855 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000772156 100 $a20070220d2008 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aAnxieties of Empire and the fiction of intrigue$b[electronic resource] /$fYumna Siddiqi 210 $aNew York $cColumbia University Press$dc2008 215 $a1 online resource (303 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a1-322-59193-8 311 $a0-231-13808-3 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [231]-268) and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tIntroduction -- $t1. Colonial Anxieties and the Fiction of Intrigue -- $t2. Imperial Intrigue in an English Country House -- $t3. Sherlock Holmes and "the Cesspool of Empire" -- $t4. The Fiction of Counterinsurgency -- $t5. Intermezzo -- $t6. Police and Postcolonial Rationality in Amitav Ghosh's The Circle of Reason -- $t7. "Deep in Blood" -- $t8. "The Unhistorical Dead" -- $tConclusion "Power Smashes Into Private Lives" -- $tNotes -- $tIndex 330 $aFocusing 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. 606 $aEnglish fiction$y19th century$xHistory and criticism 606 $aEnglish fiction$y20th century$xHistory and criticism 606 $aEnglish fiction$xSouth Asian authors$xHistory and criticism 606 $aIntrigue in literature 606 $aEspionage in literature 606 $aLiterature and society$zGreat Britain$xHistory$y19th century 606 $aLiterature and society$zGreat Britain$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aImperialism in literature 606 $aPostcolonialism in literature 606 $aAnxiety in literature 615 0$aEnglish fiction$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aEnglish fiction$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aEnglish fiction$xSouth Asian authors$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aIntrigue in literature. 615 0$aEspionage in literature. 615 0$aLiterature and society$xHistory 615 0$aLiterature and society$xHistory 615 0$aImperialism in literature. 615 0$aPostcolonialism in literature. 615 0$aAnxiety in literature. 676 $a823/.809358 700 $aSiddiqi$b Yumna$01509683 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910777921503321 996 $aAnxieties of Empire and the fiction of intrigue$93741766 997 $aUNINA