All the Difference in the World
Postcoloniality and the Ends of Comparison
Published on 8. December 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-0-8047-3198-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book is about culture and comparison. Starting with the history of the discipline of comparative literature and its forgotten relation to the positivist comparative method, it inquires into the idea of comparison in a postcolonial world. Comparison was Eurocentric by exclusion when it applied only to European literature, and Eurocentric by discrimination when it adapted evolutionary models to place European literature at the forefront of human development. This book argues that inclusiveness is not a sufficient response to postcolonial and multiculturalist challenges because it leaves the basis of equivalence unquestioned. The point is not simply to bring more objects under comparison, but rather to examine the process of comparison. The book offers a new approach to the either/or of relativism and universalism, in which comparison is either impossible or assimilatory, by focusing instead on various forms of "incommensurability"-comparisons in which there is a ground for comparison but no basis for equivalence. Each chapter develops a particular form of such cultural comparison from readings of important novelists (Joseph Conrad, Simone Schwartz-Bart), poets (Aime Cesaire, Derek Walcott), and theorists (Edouard Glissant, Jean-Luc Nancy).
Reviews / Votes
"In this innovative study, Melas analyzes the impact postcolonial writing has had on one discipline, comparative literature." - CHOICE "Melas displays a thorough familiarity with the pertinent body of established contemporary theory, and her treatment of the critical corpus is unusual in its historical scope and sophistication. All the Difference in the World is an outstanding contribution to postcolonial critical studies." - Gregson Davis, Dean of Humanities and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities (Duke University) "All the Difference in the World is an outstanding and rigorous work that reflects on the concept of comparison itself and on the history of the field of comparative literature. In her philosophically-grounded readings of the problematics of time and narrative, history and identity, trauma, and geography, Melas offers exquisitely detailed arguments that yield illuminating insights on Conrad, Walcott, Cesaire, and Simone Schwarz-Bart. An innovative and rewarding book.-Francoise Lionnet, University of California, Los Angeles "This is a subtle, intelligent book, illuminating in the insights it brings to the work of individual authors."-The Modern Language ReviewMore details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
414 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8047-3198-0 (9780804731980)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Natalie Melas is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University.
Content
Table of Contents Acknowledgements Preface CHAPTER 1 Grounds for Comparison Comparative Reaches Unimagined The Time of Comparison The Space of Comparison Incommensurability : Postcoloniality and the Ends of Comparison CHAPTER 2 Ungrounding Comparison: Conrad and Colonial Narration Imperial Comparison Marlow and The Rhetoric of Dissimilation Foiled Communities CHAPTER 3 The Empire's Loose Ends: Dissimilated Readings Dissimilation Dissimilation and Com-paraison Relation CHAPTER 4 Ruined Comparatives: Epic Similitude and the Pedagogy of Poetic Space in Derek Walcott's Omeros History and The Place Without People: Amnesia and Analogy Forgettable Vacations and Metaphor in Ruins Homeric Similes and Omeric Similitudes: A Contingent Excursus Pedagogy of Poetic Space ("Our Last Resort As Much As Yours, Omeros") Envoi CHAPTER 5 The Gift of Belittling All Things: Catastrophic Miniaturization in Aim' C'saire and Simone Schwarz-Bart Geometries of Blood The Plenitude of Smallness Irreducibility Catastrophe and Finitude The Horizon's Hero: Monocosm to Microcosm REFERENCE LIST Index