Orientalism, Terrorism, Indigenism
South Asian Readings in Postcolonialism
- Pavan Kumar Malreddy - Researcher, Institute for English and American Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt
This book’s contribution lies in its careful synthesis of concepts and concrete examples on issues of contemporary concern: terrorism, Orientalism, and Dalit Bahujan movements, and their reception in the popular media as well as in academic literature.
Drawing from the latest developments in South Asian literary studies, this book examines the uses of postcolonial theory in understanding the structural transformations enabled by post-9/11 discourses of Orientalism and terrorism; the internal contradictions between South Asian approaches to postcolonialism (Subaltern Studies) and its European adaptations; and the resistance produced by the indigenization of local literary traditions in the work of select South Asian literary figures. The three sub-sections—“discourses,” “disjunctures,” and “indigenisms”—provide the conceptual space necessary for a thematic guidance of the respective arguments presented in this book.
This book will be useful to scholars specializing in South Asian studies, Indian English Literature, Postcolonial Studies, Sociology, and Political Science.
A thought-provoking contribution to current debates about postcolonial theory’s exhaustion, Malreddy engages with contemporary discourses and South Asian texts to address the century’s new wave of postcoloniality. Stimulating and readable.
“Malreddy’s study of post-Orientalist discourses such as terrorism and indigenism is a highly recommendable scholarly contribution to the ongoing radical interrogation of postcolonial theory.”
"This rich analysis of current voices and views on postcolonialism – on its genesis, its evolution and current debates within it – makes a great contribution to the future direction of its theory and practices."
"a welcome addition to the beginners of Postcolonial literature particularly in the altered world order, post 9/11."
"The thin volume is innovative in its methodology of reading some of the texts on South Asian post colonialism and style"
“[The book] is well-written and is accessible to an expert and non-expert audience … [It is] especially useful for courses in postcolonial studies in the South Asian context where postcolonial studies has to address and factor in Dalit studies and understand their intersections and differences.”
“This carefully researched and brilliantly argued collection of “readings” in literary fiction, colonial texts, geopolitical texts, political declarations, activist testimonies and, most of all, theory is perhaps the most fitting example of the potential of postcolonial studies to maintain a critical edge and keep opening new paths for research”
“[The book] takes on the challenge by invoking orientalism and pairing it with terrorism right there in the title! .... [It] is well written and is accessible to an expert and non-expert audience. The strength of the book, lies in its willingness to confront and engage populist narratives while calling out their limitations…it is especially useful for courses in postcolonial studies in the South Asian context where postcolonial studies has to address and factor in Dalit studies and understand their intersections and differences.”
“A thought-provoking contribution to current debates about postcolonial theory’s exhaustion, Malreddy engages with contemporary discourses and South Asian texts to address the century’s new wave of postcoloniality”
"This ground-breaking book provides a critical space for contesting ideas on nationalism, indigenism and neo-Orientalism from a South Asian perspective, initiating new pathways for exploring and understanding postcolonial discourse."