1st Edition

Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues 'Discoveries' of India in the Language of Colonialism

By Jyotsna Singh Copyright 1996
    204 Pages
    by Routledge

    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues demonstrates the continuing validity of the colonial paradigm as it maps the geographical, political, and imaginative space of 'India/Indies' from the seventeenth century to the present. Breaking new ground in postcolonial studies, Jyotsna Singh highlights the interconnections among early modern colonial encounters, later manifestations in the Raj and their lingering influence in the postcolonial Indian nationalist state.
    Singh challenges the assumption of eye-witness accounts and unmeditated experiences implcit in colonial representational practices, and often left unchallenged in the postcolonial era.
    Essential introductory reading for students and academics, Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues re-evaluates the following texts:
    * seventeenth century travel narratives about India
    * eighteenth century 'nabob' texts
    * letters of the Orientalist, Sir William Jones
    * reviews of Shakespearean productions in Calcutta and postcolonial Indo-Anglian novels

    Introduction 1. Discoveries, Encounters, Spectacles: Colonial Beginnings 2. English Nabobs: Eighteenth Century Orientalism, 3. The Gendering of Empire 4. Shakespeare and the 'Civilizing Mission' 5. 'The Blind Age': Discovering the Postcolonial Nation

    Biography

    Jyotsna Singh