Uncommon wealths in postcolonial fiction [e-book] / edited by Helga Ramsey-Kurz, Melissa Kennedy.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ramsey-Kurz, Helga, editor.

Kennedy, Melissa, editor.

Series:

Cross/cultures ; Volume 201.

Cross/Cultures, 0924-1426 ; Volume 201

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Postcolonialism in literature--Congresses.

Postcolonialism in literature.

Wealth in literature--Congresses.

Wealth in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (323 pages) : illustrations (some color).

Place of Publication:

Leiden, Netherlands ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : Brill Rodopi, 2018.

Summary:

Uncommon Wealths in Postcolonial Fiction engages urgently with wealth, testing current assumptions of inequality in order to push beyond reductive contemporary readings of the gaping abyss between rich and poor. Shifting away from longstanding debates in postcolonial criticism focused on poverty and abjection, the book marshals fresh perspectives on material, spiritual, and cultural prosperity as found in the literatures of formerly colonized spaces. The chapters ‘follow the money’ to illuminate postcolonial fiction’s awareness of the ambiguities of ‘wealth’, acquired under colonial capitalism and transmuted in contemporary neoliberalism. They weigh idealistic projections of individual and collective wellbeing against the stark realities of capital accumulation and excessive consumption. They remain alert to the polysemy suggested by “Uncommon Wealths,” both registering the imperial economic urge to ensure common wealth and referencing the unconventional or non-Western, the unusual, even fictitious and contrasting privately coveted and exclusively owned wealth with visions of a shared good. Arranged into four sections centred on aesthetics, injustice, indigeneity, and cultural location, the individual chapters show how writers of postcolonial fiction, including Aravind Adiga, Amit Chau-dhuri, Anita Desai, Patricia Grace, Mohsin Hamid, Stanley Gazemba, Tomson Highway, Lebogang Matseke, Zakes Mda, Michael Ondaatje, Kim Scott, and Alexis Wright, employ prosperity and affluence as a lens through which to re-examine issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and family, the cultural value of heritage, land, and social cohesion, and such conflicting imperatives as economic growth, individual fulfilment, social and environmental responsibility, and just distribution. CONTRIBUTORS Francesco Cattani, Sheila Collingwood–Whittick, Paola Della Valle, Sneja Gunew, Melissa Kennedy, Neil Lazarus, John McLeod, Eva–Maria Müller, Helga Ramsey–Kurz, Geoff Rodoreda, Sandhya Shetty, Cheryl Stobie, Helen Tiffin, Alex Nelungo Wanjala, David Waterman

Contents:

Preliminary Material / Helga Ramsey-Kurz and Melissa Kennedy

Introduction / Helga Ramsey-Kurz and Melissa Kennedy

Into Our Labours: Work and Literary Form in World Literature / Neil Lazarus

Hidden in the Chaotic Tumble of Events: Toronto’s Rich in Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion / Helga Ramsey–Kurz

Spartan Luxury: A Poetics of Finitude and Fullness in A Strange and Sublime Address / Sandhya Shetty

Writing Congo / Helen Tiffin

The Black Diamond and the Queen BEE: Representations of Wealth, Corruption, and Women’s Sexuality in Two South African Novels / Cheryl Stobie

The Truth on Common Poverty and Uncommon Wealth in Rural Kenya: Stanley Gazemba’s The Stone Hills of Maragoli / Alex Nelungo Wanjala

Neoliberalism, Water Scarcity, and Common Wealth: Mohsin Hamid’s How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia / David Waterman

Indigenous Cosmopolitanism / Sneja Gunew

Colonial Capitalism’s ‘Disvaluation’ of Indigenous Australians’ Uncommon Wealth: Scholarly Analyses and Literary Representations / Sheila Collingwood–Whittick

Weal/th in the Land: Re-Imagining Indigenous Land-Use in Australia / Geoff Rodoreda

Indigenous Degrowth and Global Capitalism: Exploring Notions of Development in New Zealand Literature / Paola Della Valle

Wards and Rewards: Adoptability and Lost Children / John Mcleod

Exploring the European ‘Common’ Wealth: A Black British Literary and Artistic Tour / Francesco Cattani

Alpenreich | Alpine Riches: Writing Back Mountain Stories / Eva–Maria Müller

How to Be Rich, Popular, and Have It All: Conflicted Attitudes to Wealth and Poverty in Post-Crisis Fiction / Melissa Kennedy

Notes on the Contributors and Editors / Helga Ramsey-Kurz and Melissa Kennedy

Index / Helga Ramsey-Kurz and Melissa Kennedy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-35958-3

OCLC:

1011126963

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004359581 DOI