Postcolonial literatures in the local literary marketplace : located reading

This book asks what reading means in India, Nigeria, the UK, and Cuba, through close readings of literary texts from postcolonial, spatial, architectural, cartographic, materialist, trauma, and gender perspectives. It contextualises these close readings through new interpretations of local literary marketplaces to assert the significance of local, not global meanings. The book offers longer case studies on novels that stage important reading moments: Alejo Carpentier’s __The Lost Steps__ (1953), Leonardo Padura’s __Adios, Hemingway__ (2001), Tabish Khair’s __Filming__ (2007), Chibundhu Onuzo’s __Welcome to Lagos__ (2017), and Zadie Smith’s __Swing Time__ (2016). Chapters argue that while India’s literary market was disrupted by Partition, literature offers a means of moving beyond trauma; in post-Revolutionary Cuba, the Special Period led to exploitation of Cuban literary culture, resulting in texts that foreground reading spaces; in Nigeria, the market hosts meeting, negotiation, reflection, and trade, including the writer’s trade; while Black consciousness bookshops and writing in Britain operated to challenge the UK literary market, a project still underway. This book is a vindication of reading, and of the resistant power and creative potential of local literary marketplaces. It insists on ‘located reading’, enabling close reading of world literatures sited in their local materialities. Acknowledgements 7 Contents 9 About the Author 10 Abbreviations 11 Chapter 1: Introduction: Located Reading— Postcolonial Literatures in the Local Literary Marketplace 12 1.1 Located Reading 34 References 36 Chapter 2: Indian Partition Literature: Reading Displacement—Partition Reading Patterns, and Trauma 38 2.1 Introduction: Writing Partition Trauma 38 2.2 Part 1: Partition and India’s Literary Marketplace 43 2.3 Part 2: Mapping and Remapping 53 2.4 Part 3: Gender and Reading in Partition Literature 60 2.5 Part 4: Tabish Khair’s Filming—Books and Reading, Memory, and Remapping 70 2.6 Comment in Conclusion: What Reading Means in the Literature of Indian Partition 87 References 89 Chapter 3: Nigeria: Nigerian Literature and/as the Market 92 3.1 Introduction: Reading the Market in Nigerian Literature 92 3.2 Part 1: The Nigerian Literary Marketplace 97 3.3 Onitsha Market Literature 100 3.4 Part 2: Reading in Nigerian Literature—Education Transformation 110 3.5 Part 3: Nigerian and Nigerian Diaspora Literature as Transformative 123 3.6 Part 4: Reading in Nigerian Literature as an Everyday Transformation of Canonical European Literature 134 3.7 Comment in Conclusion: What Reading Means in Nigerian Literature 146 References 148 Chapter 4: Black Writing in Britain: Going Back to Move Forward—Black Consciousness Now and in the Archives 152 4.1 Introduction: Reading for Power 152 4.2 Part 1: Black Consciousness Bookshops in Britain 155 4.3 Black Consciousness in the Archive and on the Contemporary Page 161 4.4 The Black Art Movement and the Function of Art in the Pursuit of Consciousness 165 4.5 “We are our own educators” 167 4.6 Part 2: Reading for Consciousness in Black British Writing 173 4.7 Part 3: Zadie Smith’s Swing Time and Consciousness Despite Neoliberalism 181 4.8 Part 4: Helen Oyeyemi and Repetition with a Black Difference 192 4.9 Comment in Conclusion: What Reading Means in Black Writing in Britain 198 References 199 Chapter 5: Cuba: Reading and Revolution—Cuban Literature and Literary Culture 202 5.1 Introduction: Literary Culture, the Marketplace, and its Contexts 202 5.2 Part 1: Cuban Literary Culture and its Reading Spaces 1720–2000 206 5.3 Part 2: The Odyssey in Cuba—Alejo Carpentier’s The Lost Steps and the Pre-Revolutionary Cuban Literary Elite 216 5.4 Part 3: Repetition and Tourism in Leonardo Padura’s Adios, Hemingway 228 5.5 Comment in Conclusion: What Reading Means in Cuba—The Batalla de Ideas 242 References 246 Chapter 6: Conclusion: Located Reading 250 References 257 Appendix 258 Recording 1 258 Recording 2 260 Recording 3 261 Recording 4 262 Recording 5 263 Recording 6 263 Recording 7 264 Index 266 "In this remarkable, stimulating and urgent book, Jenni Ramone superbly underscores the power of reading to contest authority's demands. Insisting upon the local as resistant, unruly and disruptive, Ramone pursues the practice of 'located' reading as both a significant literary preoccupation and a meaningful tool of political consciousness-raising. Rigorously interdisciplinary and persistently ground-breaking, Ramone's study challenges at last the tired cliche that the global literary marketplace has effectively defused postcolonial literatures' dissident designs." - John McLeod, University of Leeds, UK. This book asks what reading means in India, Nigeria, the UK, and Cuba, through close readings of literary texts from postcolonial, spatial, architectural, cartographic, materialist, trauma, and gender perspectives. It contextualises these close readings through new interpretations of local literary marketplaces to assert the significance of local, not global meanings. The book offers longer case studies on novels that stage important reading moments: Alejo Carpentier's The Lost Steps (1953), Leonardo Padura's Adios, Hemingway (2001), Tabish Khair's Filming (2007), Chibundhu Onuzo's Welcome to Lagos (2017), and Zadie Smith's Swing Time (2016). Chapters argue that while India's literary market was disrupted by Partition, literature offers a means of moving beyond trauma; in post-Revolutionary Cuba, the Special Period led to exploitation of Cuban literary culture, resulting in texts that foreground reading spaces; in Nigeria, the market hosts meeting, negotiation, reflection, and trade, including the writer's trade; while Black consciousness bookshops and writing in Britain operated to challenge the UK literary market, a project still underway. This book is a vindication of reading, and of the resistant power and creative potential of local literary marketplaces. It insists on 'located reading', enabling close reading of world literatures sited in their local materialities "In this remarkable, stimulating and urgent book, Jenni Ramone superbly underscores the power of reading to contest authoritys demands. Insisting upon the local as resistant, unruly and disruptive, Ramone pursues the practice of 'located reading as both a significant literary preoccupation and a meaningful tool of political consciousness-raising. Rigorously interdisciplinary and persistently ground-breaking, Ramones study challenges at last the tired cliche that the global literary marketplace has effectively defused postcolonial literatures dissident designs." - John McLeod, University of Leeds, UK. This book asks what reading means in India, Nigeria, the UK, and Cuba, through close readings of literary texts from postcolonial, spatial, architectural, cartographic, materialist, trauma, and gender perspectives. It contextualises these close readings through new interpretations of local literary marketplaces to assert the significance of local, not global meanings. The book offers longer case studies on novels that stage important reading moments: Alejo Carpentiers The Lost Steps (1953), Leonardo Paduras Adios, Hemingway (2001), Tabish Khairs Filming (2007), Chibundhu Onuzos Welcome to Lagos (2017), and Zadie Smiths Swing Time (2016). Chapters argue that while Indias literary market was disrupted by Partition, literature offers a means of moving beyond trauma; in post-Revolutionary Cuba, the Special Period led to exploitation of Cuban literary culture, resulting in texts that foreground reading spaces; in Nigeria, the market hosts meeting, negotiation, reflection, and trade, including the writers trade; while Black consciousness bookshops and writing in Britain operated to challenge the UK literary market, a project still underway. This book is a vindication of reading, and of the resistant power and creative potential of local literary marketplaces. It insists on 'located reading, enabling close reading of world literature s sited in their local materialities Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction: Located Reading—Postcolonial Literatures in the Local Literary Marketplace (Jenni Ramone)....Pages 1-26 Indian Partition Literature: Reading Displacement—Partition Reading Patterns, and Trauma (Jenni Ramone)....Pages 27-80 Nigeria: Nigerian Literature and/as the Market (Jenni Ramone)....Pages 81-140 Black Writing in Britain: Going Back to Move Forward—Black Consciousness Now and in the Archives (Jenni Ramone)....Pages 141-190 Cuba: Reading and Revolution—Cuban Literature and Literary Culture (Jenni Ramone)....Pages 191-238 Conclusion: Located Reading (Jenni Ramone)....Pages 239-246 Back Matter ....Pages 247-261