Postcolonial LIterary History: Concepts and Permutations

This is all very messy needs to be edited

Speakers in the program: Ankhi Mukherjee (AM), Mariano Siskind (MS), Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (GCS).

more roundtable than papers. here is the write up in the program

"While literary theory has been central to the formation of postcolonial studies, many scholars in the field along with those in cognate areas such as comparative and world literature, have increasingly turned their attention to mapping literary history. This roundtable will focus on various issues in literary history from postcolonial, comparative, and other perspectives and will be aimed at graduate students and everyone interested in literary history generally."

Welcome to the panel roundtable, (Spivak is late, Ato Quayson tells the people that she will arrive).

Cambridge two volume postcolonial literary history, celebration. they are speaking on their different chapters. Forthcoming books, AM and MS both have books coming out. So things will take on a more presentation style as each talks of their chapters in the book.

AM: postcol life history Western literary canon, is a key prop of scenes of literature. for example: VSN, recalls how 20th century under the seas one of the first texts for reading.

vexed relationship in Parmuk's father's library

(Spivak appears a little late, but she arrives during AM's presentation)

Multiple Languages of the books in the libraries of postco memories of fiction

world literature aspiration, rendered communicable

Elliot five shelf book, operationalizes the canon, as a library of vetted works to cary out work of global dominance. the classics distill the meaning of civilization.

"recording experiences of humanity from barbarianism to civilization" books rendered interesting to the europe as well as books from europe.

narrator: but no arabic book.

My chapter is in five partss; "impossibility of the full undoing of the canon" (GCS) not tied to via universals but via textual economies (also refers to GCS).

Bhabba "contingent disorder of history" reading his library unpacking linked to benjamin's

renewal of existence of he matter of the book itself as world literature

>Five Sections: key books, apprsals of genres, english as global vernacular, postcolonial jane austin, resetting in postcolonial settings --canon as becoming, to value adjudication to the postco canon

--what does postcolonial might mean: refers to this idea of composite literary textual tradition a small change affected by empire. Use of English as foreign language, tropological engagement of colonialism, and migrancy.

not just vast of import of empire on culture, but unpredictable contact zones from the context of reading.

> passive consumption to repitition to autonous acts of literature and criticism. the child is unpredicable (Derrida)

II. Professor Spivak goes Second. MLA 1983 first used postcolonial panelist. She was part of panel while at Texas

People woot woot Spivak on the way to panel. literally woot woot

"I am part of the evidence of postcolonial literary history" spoken provocatively.

emphasizing English speaking and status of teacher. Derossio (Sp?) first nationalist poet tradition is teacher/ teaching is to mark him as an exception. 1970s Spivaks own work first excluded now evidence of existence in postcolonial literary history.

make an attempt to see the work as open ended, sometime contradictory, even as key texts established. authoritative source of the history of the vanishing present.

grammitization to sardinian can be put to any "transpose" historical grammer in Gramsic

always presupposes a choice, a cultural tendency, an act of national cultural politics [ the introduction to cambridge as a commonwealth as postcolonial] what is the best way to get them accepted, teh suitable means to be reached. a goal is to be reached, a political act.

All history as play of survival. I am a comparatists. Gramsci authority always opened up.

Diasporic as postco; a comparatist epistemological performance (subaltern is part of the performance); however wonderful of the text, we must remember nothing including digitization can capute the vanishing presence, the event escapes the performative.

dramatize the scene of struggle Context of formal; Settler, Migrancy

some not interested in postcolonial until immigrants into europe focuses on racism of the old masters.

move out of mere nationality to internationality migrancy (globalicities new work must be looked at ). Colonialism of french language means lots of pan frensh coloniliasm

not just france, imperialism shared invasion of language;

as we move from postco to glablized world a shifting of postco entities; linerar description of modernization not work, colonialism with bookended, look at how national forces are showing their forces once again; cultural politics in bulgaria and mexico, Nepal in south asian studies. Do not want to shift attention to Nepal or patronized or ignored, shift south asian studies to a new ways ASEAN and other places

audacity radiating globality; present much be delocated; local cultures overwhelemed is the key narrative but our project the ways in which globalized world not just produced by epeans and possessions, not core to periphery but from periphery to periphery, what links cites to shared subjection, ntwrks of trade and colonial power (other regional power, at least 8 different nations/states)

various empires and non empires to rethink the global in a decentered way, new lines of research in colonial histories new institutional connections, need good history of postcolonial

time for a new regionalism.

MS on magical realism

unhappy with two key discourses; writing against the belief of world literature practices of naturalization of mr universality. the key genre of world literature is too superficial.

the same can be said of mr of literary genre of poscolonialism. as well as latin americanisn of essentialist that majical realism is a latn american invention.

better to see mr in transition as a process from restricted to la specificity to universal form of particularism, as a post colonial universal

think global poscolin of mr as historical material process located and relocated from 1920s to 21 century. expands on last part of his chapter, deals with globalization of 100 years of Solitude

mr marked by relationship to avante garde in 20s. LA 1940-1970 concept signature of particularity of the region, to establish an aethstic-rhetoric indepnent of europe.

boom in LA lit and postco potential in light of cuban revolution.

Cuban Revolution and the continental imaginaries of emancipation during the 1960s in dialgue with antiimperialism. Literary field self determination of region

tension of myth and history key, cultural in most particular poses modern history and wounds on the peripheries.

everyone rocked by the time limits

the importance of the book is to do with narrative horizon visible universality of colonialist/postcolonial/capitalist forms of oppression

transition of boom to global expansion in material history reconstruction--after the publication in 67 how promoted and immediate success, first translation in italy, france england usa (1970) promoted explosion of magical realism in anglo postco world.

rushdie: 1975 had he read it, said not, was sent a copy to read. When i did read it, forever lost in the novel, unforgetable, we all remember when we read it. what struck me was the similarite he was descrbing from the world i was describing from: religion superstition and coloniliasm, and collosaal rich, poor, dictators and corruption that was called fantastic becomes natural

writers write 1982 celberity of ley readers mr become THE for undeveloped world easily translated, the expansion and abuse from this displacement of context of history prevents peopel form paying attention to global diffusion, no formalist debate about definition past, the critical challeng historicising its postcoloniality will be potential to show.

AQ the problem of not fully taking seriously the claim that world literature is also a seminar on world history. We tend to spatialize with the terms postcolonial periodization

spatilizing and time reveals complex critical diagnostic of postcolonial

two bookend 1492/1947

Sugar to Europe new world into capitalist economy.

1947 India and partition and Isreal formed

place making key similiarity: processes not just ruptures (Said) is key to postco.

what starts as chronicles become orientalism an internal logic and colonial rule. Marquiz 1982. "accurate" account like a fantasy.

instrumentalization of space/making for colonial governmentality.

CG involves condition of dispersal of populations

dispersal systematic for specific ends: to establish "muticulturalism" in certain political units.

nation as instrument of literary history

epochality? not sure I am hearing the concept correctly, grafting the idea around a nation.

quotes foucault so that true challenge of rhetorical devices that give historical salience to space making practices.

Talk time with audience: people are just riffing questions I think we are going to respond after all

Q to Spivak about China and Arab world

Q AM: VSN not canon, but incomprehension of the text.

Q GCS: radiality and regionalism link to pedagogy of area studies paradigm.

----

AM; respond was an anguished relationship was precisely what you ask about, it is a jerry built canon not good enuf.

GSC: China/Arab world relates to specificities of project, lots of others involved, rethinking this area to imagine the trade between calcutaa and kunming since 12th century. how have precolonial come back. how much learned focusing on subaltern section, to see not postcol but stuff in existence before colonial these are the forces are work n the new places coming up in the globe.

massive project needed to deal with this magnitude of the work to be done. we will learn how to describe globalization in new ways.

conclusions not there, in terms of teaching, how to hit mainstream is hard to imagine because we are dealing with new institutions for making this happen.