From New National to World Literature: Essays and Reviews (Studies in World Literature)

From New National to World English Literature offers a personal perspective on the evolution of a major cultural movement that began with decolonization, continued with the assertion of African, West Indian, Commonwealth, and other literatures, and has evolved through postcolonial to world or international English literature. Bruce King, one of the pioneers in the study of the new national literatures and still an active literary critic, discusses the personalities, writers, issues, and contexts of what he considers the most important change in culture since modernism. In this selection of forty-five essays and reviews, King discusses issues such as the emergence and aesthetics of African literature, the question of the existence of a "Nigerian literature", the place of the new universities in decolonizing culture, the contrasting models of American and Irish literatures, and the changing nature of exile and diasporas. He emphasizes themes such as traditionalism versus modernism, the dangers of cultural assertion, and the relationships between nationalism and internationalism. Special attention is given to Nigerian, West Indian, Australian, Indian, and Pakistani literature. Table of contents 8 I. Introduction 12 Chapter 1 Introduction 14 Chapter 2 How with the Help of Derry Jeffares I (an American) Became a Commonwealth Literature Specialist 40 II. African Literature 48 Chapter 3 Those Magical Years: The Making of Nigerian Literature at Ibadan: 1948-1966 50 Chapter 4 The Emergence of African Fiction 58 Chapter 5 Thoughts on African Literature 70 Chapter 6 African Literature and Aesthetics 82 Chapter 7 Is There a Nigerian Literature? 88 Chapter 8 Abioseh Nicol 116 Chapter 9 Gabriel Okara 120 Chapter 10 The Revised Arrow of God 146 Chapter 11 Wole Soyinka and the Nobel Prize for Literature 158 III. New English Literatures 166 Chapter 12 Nationalism, Internationalism, Periodization, and Commonwealth Literature 168 Chapter 13 Protest, Alienation and Modernism in the New Literatures 180 Chapter 14 The Commonwealth Writer in Exile 194 Chapter 15 Ethnicity as Response: Richler, Achebe and Naipaul 202 IV. Australia, Canada, New Zealand 216 Chapter 16 The Role of American Literature in Colonial and Post-Colonial Cultures 218 Chapter 17 Canadian and New Zealand Jewish Writers: A Contrast Between Mordecai Richler and Charles Brasch 232 Chapter 18 A.D. Hope and Australian Poetry 246 Chapter 19 Randolph Stow’s Novels of Exile 270 Chapter 20 Frank Moorhouse, Grand Days (1994) 286 Chapter 21 Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing 290 V. West Indies 302 Chapter 22 Anand’s Recherche du Temps Perdu 304 Chapter 23 Who Has Written Better? 324 Chapter 24 Garth St. Omer: From Disorder to Order 326 Chapter 25 West Indian Drama and the Rockefeller Foundation, 1957-70: Derek Walcott, The Little Carib and The University of the West Indies 344 Chapter 26 A Witness to Culture 360 Chapter 27 Derek Walcott’s The Bounty (1998) 364 Chapter 28 Religion and Education in Derek Walcott’s St Lucia 366 Chapter 29 Contextualizing Walcott 380 Chapter 30 White Egrets, Derek Walcott (2010) 388 VI. Internationalizing British Literature 390 Chapter 31 Who Wrote The Satanic Verses? (1988) 392 Chapter 32 David Dabydeen’s A Harlot’s Progress (2000) 400 Chapter 33 Abdulrazak Gurnah and Hanif Kureishi: Failed Revolutions 406 Chapter 34 Mike Phillips and the Making of Black British Literature 420 VII. Indian Literature 430 Chapter 35 Modern Indian and American Poetry: Some Contacts and Relations 432 Chapter 36 Keki Daruwalla: Outsider, Skeptic and Poet 454 Chapter 37 That Preface, Nissim Ezekiel Remembered 476 Chapter 38 2004: Ezekiel, Moraes, Kolatkar 484 Chapter 39 A Personal Moon: Adil Jussawalla 508 Chapter 40 To Be Or Not To Be Diasporic 514 Chapter 41 Narcopolis By Jeet Thayil 540 VIII. Muslims and Pakistan 546 Chapter 42 From Twilight to Midnight: Muslim Novels of India and Pakistan 548 Chapter 43 Alamgir Hashmi’s Poetry: Pakistan, Modernity and Language 566 Chapter 44 Jamil Ahmad, The Wandering Falcon (2011) 582 Chapter 45 Kamila Shamsie's Novels of History, Exile and Desire 584 Chapter 46 Dangerous Controversies 606 Acknowledgments 622 Index 628 From New National to World English Literature offers a personal perspective on the evolution of a major cultural movement that began with decolonization, continued with the assertion of African, West Indian, Commonwealth, and other literatures, and has evolved through postcolonial to world or international English literature. Bruce King's extensive Introduction discusses the personalities, writers, issues, and contexts of what he considers the most important change in culture since Modernism. The Introduction also explains the forty-five essays and reviews he has selected from his publications to illustrate the development, stages, and major national literatures, authors, and themes. Special attention is given to Nigerian, West Indian, Australian, Indian, and Pakistani literature. Topics and issues include: “Derry” Jeffares organising Commonwealth and Anglo-Irish studies, the emergence and aesthetics of African literature, the question of the existence of a “Nigerian literature”, the place of the new universities in decolonizing culture, the influence of the Rockefeller Foundation, the contrasting models of American and Irish literatures, ethnicity as response, the changing nature of exile and diasporas, the role of Jewish writers, minorities, Muslim objections to free speech, The Satanic Verses controversy, traditionalism versus modernism, the dangers of cultural assertion, and the relationships between nationalism and internationalism. Authors discussed include Chinua Achebe, Ahmed Ali, Margaret Atwood, David Dabydeen, K N Daruwalla, Nissim Ezekiel, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Alamgir Hashmi, Attia Hosain, A D Hope, Adil Jussawalla, Arun Kolatkar, Hanif Kureishi, Dom Moraes, Frank Moorhouse, V S Naipaul, Abioseh Nicol, Gabriel Okara, Mike Phillips, Mordechai Richler, Salman Rushdie, Wole Soyinka, Garth St Omer, Kamila Shamsie, Randolph Stow, Jeet Thayil, and Derek Walcott.