Description
At first glance, postcolonialism and romance seem worlds apart: the former associated with political critique and activism, the latter with idealisation and escapism. This study unsettles this assumption. In discussing selected novels of Amitav Ghosh and Kamila Shamsie, it shows how contemporary fiction employs romance conventions to critically engage with history. Far from being apolitical, romance in the novels of Ghosh and Shamsie becomes a tool for rethinking modernity and for envisioning alternative futures disentangled from the colonial past. At first glance, postcolonialism and romance seem worlds apart: the former associated with political critique and activism, the latter with idealisation and escapism. In discussing selected novels of Amitav Ghosh and Kamila Shamsie, this study unsettles this assumption. Through reading both authors' texts against the backdrop of the 19th- and early 20th- century historical and imperial romance, it shows how contemporary fiction employs romance conventions to critically engage with history. Far from being apolitical, romance in the novels of Ghosh and Shamsie becomes a tool for rethinking modernity and for envisioning alternative futures disentangled from the colonial past. I. INTRODUCTIONII. MODERNITY AND POSTCOLONIAL ROMANCE: PRELIMINARY REMARKS1.Reconceptualising and Transforming Modernity: Modernity as a Transcultural Phenomenon1.1 A Transcultural Understanding of Modernity as a Political Intervention: Two Versions1.2 Towards a Cosmopolitan Paradigm2.From Exotic Romance to Postcolonial Romance2.1 Exotic Romance and the Modern Versus Anti-Modern Imagination2.2 Exotic Romance, Alternative 'Conceptual Realities' and Cosmopolitan Visions2.3 Ghosh's and Shamsie's Versions of Postcolonial Romance: An OutlineIII. TRANSCENDING THE BORDERS OF 'THE MODERN': ROMANCE IN THE NOVELS OF AMITAV GHOSH1.Western Modernity's Global Triumph: The Ibis Trilogy (2008-15) and the Historical Romance Tradition1.1The Trilogy's Divided World1.2The Trilogy's Narrative of 'Modernisation'1.3The Trilogy's Romance Realm: (Western) Modernity's Banned 'Other'1.4 The Trilogy's Outlook: Modernity as a 'Train Headed for Disaster'2.The Other World of the Sundarbans: The Hungry Tide (2004) and the Imperial Romance Tradition2.1 Travelling to a Pre-Modern Place? The 'Denial of Coevalness' in Postcolonial India2.2 A World of Boundaries Versus Its Romance Alternative2.3 Beyond Exotic Romance and Notions of a Divided WorldIV. ROMANCE, INTERCONNECTED HISTORIES AND A FUTURE BEYOND DIVISIONS IN KAMILA SHAMSIE'S NOVELS1. Replacing Exotic Romance with Transcultural Romance: A God in Every Stone (2014)1.1 Deconstructing Exotic Romance - Rejecting Imaginaries of Division1.2 Transcultural Romance and Shamsie's Revisionist History2. Visions for a World at Peace: The Troubled Romance Plots of Burnt Shadows (2009) and Kartography (2002)2.1 Against Classifications: Romance in Burnt Shadows2.2 Kartography's Romance of ConnectionsV. FROM ALTERNATIVE VISIONS TO ALTERNATIVE WORLDS: POSTCOLONIAL ROMANCE IN CONTEXTVI BIBLIOGRAPHY Lisa Schwander hat am Lehrstuhl für Anglistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft der Universität Mannheim gelehrt und promoviert.
