Order and Partialities
Theory, Pedagogy, and the "Postcolonial"
Published on 14. September 1995
Book
Hardback
415 pages
978-0-7914-2639-5 (ISBN)
Description
Looks at the political and cultural issues involved in teaching postcolonial literatures and theories.
Order and Partialities explores the complex and problematic relations among postcolonial literatures and theories, the people who teach them at the university level, and the institutions in which they are taught. Each essay traces a path through these relations; yet each also comments on the fundamental paradox and contradiction within which these relations operate: that they must engage with the powerful, labyrinthine apparatus of Western cultural hegemony-a set of systematic, interpretative procedures corresponding to, and in service of, a regime of ideological expectations and its institutional representatives-in order to disengage themselves from its operations. There is no way to teach these relations without entering, oneself, into the entanglements of postcolonial power.
Order and Partialities explores the complex and problematic relations among postcolonial literatures and theories, the people who teach them at the university level, and the institutions in which they are taught. Each essay traces a path through these relations; yet each also comments on the fundamental paradox and contradiction within which these relations operate: that they must engage with the powerful, labyrinthine apparatus of Western cultural hegemony-a set of systematic, interpretative procedures corresponding to, and in service of, a regime of ideological expectations and its institutional representatives-in order to disengage themselves from its operations. There is no way to teach these relations without entering, oneself, into the entanglements of postcolonial power.
Reviews / Votes
"This is a rich, diverse resource that presents a variety of views concerning the conception of 'post-colonial literatures' and the teaching of such writings. The articles stand out as complex, detailed, creatively and comprehensively theorized, going beyond narrow readings to show how particular texts can disrupt discourses and logics which continue to secure the Western appropriation of 'the Other.'" - Roger I. Simon, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education"This collection of essays takes on some of the thorniest critical problems in postcolonial studies in highly nuanced and complex ways. The book consistently refuses a simplistic or reductive theoretical unity and coherence, instead capturing the rich and dynamic critical exchanges that characterize the best contemporary postcolonial theory."- Madhu Dubey, Northwestern University
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Weight
717 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-2639-5 (9780791426395)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Kostas Myrsiades is Professor of English at West Chester University and Editor of College Literature. Jerry McGuire is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and Managing Editor of College Literature.
Content
Introduction
Lalita Pandit and Jerry McGuire
Part I. Theory: New Histories and (Multi)cultural Poetics
1. Dimensions of African Discourse
Aiola Irele
2. An Iconography of Difference: Internal Colonialism, Photography, and the Crofters of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Martin Padget
3. Sanctioned and Proscribed Narratives in Postcolonial India: A Bicultural Reading of the Courtesan Film
Poonam Arora
4. The Gender of Tradition: Ideologies of Character in Post-Colonization Anglophone Literature
Patrick Colm Hogan
5. "Logiques metisses": Cultural Appropriation and Postcolonial Representations
Francoise Lionnet
6. Narrative, Pluralism, and Decolonization: Recent Caribbean Literature
Patrick Taylor
7. Hysterical Bodies, Colonial Subjects: La Mere's Hystery in Duras' Un barage contre le Pacifique
Joline Blais
8. Launcelot's Feast: Teaching Poststructuralism and the New Mestiza
Laura E. Donaldson
9. Subalterity and Feminism in the Moment of the (Post)modern: The Materialist Return
Teresa L. Ebert
10. Postcolonial Tour 93 (All Major U.S. Cities)
Amitava Kumar
Part II. Pedagogy: Terminologies, Problematics, Readings
11. Dodging the Crossfire: Questions for Postcolonial Pedagogy
Rajeswari Mohan
12. Teaching at the End of Empire
Stephen Slemon
13. Heart of Darkness, Tarzan, and the "Third World": Canons and Encounters in World Literature, English 109
Allen Carey-Webb
14. The Hybrid Terrains of Literary Imagination: Maryse Conde's Black Witch of Salem, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester Prynne, and Aime Cesaire's Heroic Poetic Voice
Mara L. Dukats
15. Other Worlds, Other Texts: Teaching Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day to Canadian Students
Arun Mukherjee
16. "And Here I Am, Telling in Winnebago How I Lived My Life": Teaching Mountain Wolf Woman
Susan Gardner
17. Parenting the Nation: Some Observations on Nuruddin Farah's Maps
Derek Wright
18. Re-Inventing Ourselves a Million Times: Narrative, Desire, and Identity in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine
F. Timothy Ruppel
Index
Lalita Pandit and Jerry McGuire
Part I. Theory: New Histories and (Multi)cultural Poetics
1. Dimensions of African Discourse
Aiola Irele
2. An Iconography of Difference: Internal Colonialism, Photography, and the Crofters of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Martin Padget
3. Sanctioned and Proscribed Narratives in Postcolonial India: A Bicultural Reading of the Courtesan Film
Poonam Arora
4. The Gender of Tradition: Ideologies of Character in Post-Colonization Anglophone Literature
Patrick Colm Hogan
5. "Logiques metisses": Cultural Appropriation and Postcolonial Representations
Francoise Lionnet
6. Narrative, Pluralism, and Decolonization: Recent Caribbean Literature
Patrick Taylor
7. Hysterical Bodies, Colonial Subjects: La Mere's Hystery in Duras' Un barage contre le Pacifique
Joline Blais
8. Launcelot's Feast: Teaching Poststructuralism and the New Mestiza
Laura E. Donaldson
9. Subalterity and Feminism in the Moment of the (Post)modern: The Materialist Return
Teresa L. Ebert
10. Postcolonial Tour 93 (All Major U.S. Cities)
Amitava Kumar
Part II. Pedagogy: Terminologies, Problematics, Readings
11. Dodging the Crossfire: Questions for Postcolonial Pedagogy
Rajeswari Mohan
12. Teaching at the End of Empire
Stephen Slemon
13. Heart of Darkness, Tarzan, and the "Third World": Canons and Encounters in World Literature, English 109
Allen Carey-Webb
14. The Hybrid Terrains of Literary Imagination: Maryse Conde's Black Witch of Salem, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester Prynne, and Aime Cesaire's Heroic Poetic Voice
Mara L. Dukats
15. Other Worlds, Other Texts: Teaching Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day to Canadian Students
Arun Mukherjee
16. "And Here I Am, Telling in Winnebago How I Lived My Life": Teaching Mountain Wolf Woman
Susan Gardner
17. Parenting the Nation: Some Observations on Nuruddin Farah's Maps
Derek Wright
18. Re-Inventing Ourselves a Million Times: Narrative, Desire, and Identity in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine
F. Timothy Ruppel
Index