ABSTRACT

India has often been at the centre of debates on and definitions of the postcolonial condition. Offering a challenging new direction for the field, this Critical Reader confronts how theory in the Indian context is responding in vital terms to our understanding of that condition today.

The Indian Postcolonial: A Critical Reader is made up of four sections looking in turn at:

  • visual cultures
  • translating cultural traditions
  • the ethical text
  • global/cosmopolitan worlds.

Each section is prefaced with a short introduction by the editors that locate these interdisciplinary articles within the contemporary national and international context. Showcasing the diversity and vitality of current debate, this volume collects the work of both established figures and a new generation of cultural critics.

Challenging and unsettling many basic premises of postcolonial studies, this volume is the ideal Reader for students and scholars of the Indian Postcolonial.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

ByELLEKE BOEHMER, ROSINKA CHAUDHURI

part |4 pages

PART I Visual cultures

chapter 1|14 pages

The sacred circulation of national images

ByPARTHA CHATTERJEE

chapter 3|21 pages

Ray, ventriloquism and illusion

ByROBERT J. C. YOUNG

chapter 4|21 pages

Fan bhakti and subaltern sovereignty: Enthusiasm as a political factor

ByM. MADHAVA PRASAD

part |6 pages

PART II Translating cultural traditions

part |4 pages

PART III The ethical text

chapter 9|19 pages

Ethics and politics in Tagore, Coetzee and certain scenes of teaching

ByGAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK

chapter 10|24 pages

Self, body and inner sense: Some reflections on Sree Narayana Guru and Kumaran Asan

ByNarayana Guru and Kumaran Asan UDAYA KUMAR

part |4 pages

PART IV Global/cosmopolitan worlds

chapter 14|19 pages

India, empire and First World War writing

BySANTANU DAS

chapter 15|18 pages

Thinking through the postnation

ByNIVEDITA MENON

chapter 16|21 pages

A colonial city and its time(s)

ByRANAJIT GUHA