The Oppressive Present: Literature and Social Consciousness in Colonial India Revised Edition Contributor(s): Chandra, Sudhir (Author) |
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ISBN: 0415717310 ISBN-13: 9780415717311 Publisher: Routledge Chapman & Hall OUR PRICE: $104.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 2013 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - India & South Asia - Social Science | Sociology - General - Science | Life Sciences - Botany |
Dewey: 890 |
Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6.2" W x 9.4" (1.45 lbs) 238 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Indian |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Marking a departure from studies on history and literature in colonial India, The Oppressive Present explores the emergence of social consciousness as a result of and in response to the colonial mediation in the late nineteenth century. In focusing on contemporary literature in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi, it charts an epochal change in the gradual loss of the old pre-colonial self and the configuration of a new, colonized self. It reveals that the 'oppressive present' of generations of subjugated Indians remains so for their freed descendants: the consciousness of those colonized generations continues to characterize the 'modern educated Indian'. The book proposes ambivalence rather than binary categories -- such as communalism and nationalism, communalism and secularism, modernity and tradition -- as key to understanding the making of this consciousness. This cross-disciplinary volume will prove essential to scholars and students of modern and contemporary Indian history and society, comparative literature and post-colonial studies. |