After Empire : Scott, Naipaul, Rushdie / Michael Gorra.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gorra, Michael Edward.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Scott, Paul, 1920-1978. Raj quartet.

Scott, Paul.

Naipaul, V. S. (Vidiadhar Surajprasad), 1932---Knowledge--India.

Naipaul, V. S.

Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's children.

Rushdie, Salman.

English fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

National characteristics, British, in literature.

Indic fiction (English)--History and criticism.

Indic fiction (English).

Anglo-Indian fiction--History and criticism.

Anglo-Indian fiction.

Decolonization in literature.

Imperialism in literature.

India--In literature.

India.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (220 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In After Empire Michael Gorra explores how three novelists of empire-Paul Scott, V. S. Naipaul, and Salman Rushdie-have charted the perpetually drawn and perpetually blurred boundaries of identity left in the wake of British imperialism. Arguing against a model of cultural identity based on race, Gorra begins with Scott's portrait, in The Raj Quartet, of the character Hari Kumar-a seeming oxymoron, an "English boy with a dark brown skin," whose very existence undercuts the belief in an absolute distinction between England and India. He then turns to the opposed figures of Naipaul and Rushdie, the two great novelists of the Indian diaspora. Whereas Naipaul's long and controversial career maps the "deep disorder" spread by both imperialism and its passing, Rushdie demonstrates that certain consequences of that disorder, such as migrancy and mimicry, have themselves become creative forces. After Empire provides engaging and enlightening readings of postcolonial fiction, showing how imperialism helped shape British national identity-and how, after the end of empire, that identity must now be reconfigured.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

Introduction. After Empire

1. The Situation: Paul Scott and The Raj Qwrtet

2. V. S. Naipaul: In His Father's House

3. The Novel in an Age of Ideology: On the Form of Midnight's Children

Appendix to Chapter 3. "Burn the Books and Trust the Book": The Satanic Verses, February 1989

Conclusion. Notes towards a Redefinition of Englishness

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226304762

0226304760

9781299104617

1299104614

OCLC:

476227718