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11 - Essay and Empire

from Part II - The Work of the Essay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2022

By
Majumdar Saikat
Edited by
Kara Wittman  and
Evan Kindley
Kara Wittman
Affiliation:
Pomona College, California
Evan Kindley
Affiliation:
Pomona College, California
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Summary

This chapter argues that the various forms of fallibility historically identified in the genre of the essay – the tentative, the unfinished, and the imperfect – add up to a freedom from mastery that is peculiarly conducive to the consciousness of the postcolonial subject. The author examines essays by writers such as J. M. Coetzee, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, C. L R. James, Jamaica Kincaid, and Arundhati Roy.

Keywords

PostcolonialismImperialismDecolonizationEmpireIndiaAntiguaSouth AfricaJ. M. CoetzeeNirad C. ChaudhuriC. L. R. JamesNgũgĩwa Thiong'oJamaica KincaidJulietta Singh
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to The Essay , pp. 167 - 181
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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