Landscapes of Hope : Anti-Colonial Utopianism in America

Landscapes of Hope: Anti-Colonial Utopianism in America examines anti-colonial discourse during the understudied but critical period before World War Two, with a specific focus on writers and activists based in the United States. Dohra Ahmad adds to the fields of American Studies, utopian studies, and postcolonial theory by situating this growing anti-colonial literature as part of an American utopian tradition. In the key early decades of the twentieth century, Ahmad shows, the intellectuals of the colonized world carried out the heady work of imagining independent states, often from a position of exile. Faced with that daunting task, many of them composed literary texts--novels, poems, contemplative essays--in order to conceptualize the new societies they sought. Beginning by exploring some of the conventions of American utopian fiction at the turn of the century, Landscapes of Hope goes on to show the surprising ways in which writers such as W.E B. Du Bois, Pauline Hopkins, Rabindranath Tagore, and Punjabi nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai appropriated and adapted those utopian conventions toward their own end of global colored emancipation. "In the early decades of the twentieth century, the intellectuals of the colonized world carried out the heady work of imagining independent states, often from a position of exile. Faced with that daunting task, many of them composed literary texts - novels, poems, contemplative essays - as a way to conceptualize the new societies they sought. After exploring conventions of American utopian fiction at the turn of the century, Dohra Ahmad shows the surprising ways in which writers such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Pauline Hopkins, Rabindranath Tagore, and Punjabi nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai appropriated and adapted those utopian conventions toward their own end of global colored emancipation." "Landscapes of Hope offers a cogent new examination of anti-imperialist discourse during this under-studied but critical period. With a specific focus on writers and activists based in the United States, Ahmad combines perspectives from American Studies, utopian studies, and post-colonial theory to describe an unrecognized strand in the American utopian tradition. Drawing upon extensive archival research, Ahmad analyzes the little known, often collaborative contributions of both African and Indian Americans and reveals the productive relationship between anti-colonial writing and the utopian tradition. Her subtle and original argument provides a new framework for understanding Left literary culture in the first half of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET "Landscapes of Hope: Anti-Colonial Utopianism in America examines anti-colonial discourse during the understudied but critical period before World War II, with a specific focus on writers and activists based in the United States. The book contributes to the fields of American Studies, utopian studies, and postcolonial theory by situating this growing anti-colonial literature as part of an American utopian tradition. In the key early decades of the twentieth century, the intellectuals of the colonized world carried out the heady work of imagining independent states, often from a position of exile. Faced with that daunting task, many of them composed literary texts--novels, poems, contemplative essays--in order to conceptualize the new societies they sought. Beginning by exploring some of the conventions of American utopian fiction at the turn of the century, Landscapes of Hope goes on to show the surprising ways in which writers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Pauline Hopkins, Rabindranath Tagore, and Punjabi nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai appropriated and adapted those utopian conventions toward their own end of global emancipation of peoples of color"--Abstract from Table of contents page Introduction: Real Networks and Imaginary Vistas One: Developing Nations I. Evolution: Edward Bellamy, William Morris, William Dean Howells II. Eugenics: Charlotte Perkins Gilman Two: A Periodical Nation I. Culture: A. K. Coomaraswamy II. Nationalism: Rabindranath Tagore III. Personification: Sarojini Naidu IV. Transnationalism: J. T. Sunderland Three: Worlds of Color I. Resurrection: Pauline Hopkins II. Romance: W. E. B. Du Bois III. Rationalism: Richard Wright Epilogue: Multicultural Utopia? This volume examines anti-colonial discourse during the understudied but critical period before World War Two, with a specific focus on writers and activists based in the United States