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. 1 Introduction2 Modernity and Postcolonial Romance: Preliminary Remarks2.1 Reconceptualising and Transforming Modernity: Modernity as a Transcultural Phenomenon2.1.1 A Transcultural Understanding of Modernity as a Political Intervention: Two Versions2.1.2 Towards a Cosmopolitan Paradigm2.2 From Exotic Romance to Postcolonial Romance2.2.1 Exotic Romance and the Modern Versus Anti-ModernImagination2.2.2 Exotic Romance, Alternative 'Conceptual Realities' and Cosmopolitan Visions2.2.3 Ghosh's and Shamsie's Versions of Postcolonial Romance: An Outline3 Transcending the Borders of 'the Modern': Romance in the Novels of Amitav Ghosh3.1 Western Modernity's Global Triumph: The Ibis Trilogy (2008-15) and the Historical Romance Tradition3.1.1 The Trilogy's Divided World3.1.2 The Narrative of 'Modernisation'3.1.2.1 ... But Where Exactly is the Anti-Modern? The BattleBetween the 'New' and the 'Old' World Reconsidered3.1.2.2 'Re-Made in a More Enlightened Mould': CharacterDevelopment and the Idea of a Modernising World3.1.3 The Romance Realm: (Western) Modernity's Banned 'Other'3.1.3.1 Beyond the Borders and Boundaries of 'the Modern'3.1.3.2 The Ibis Community: A Continuation along the IndianOcean Lines3.1.4 The Trilogy's Outlook: Modernity as a 'Train Headedfor Disaster'3.2 The Other World of the Sundarbans: The Hungry Tide (2004) and the Imperial Romance Tradition3.2.1 Travelling to a Pre-Modern Place? The 'Denial ofCoevalness' in Postcolonial India3.2.2 A World of Boundaries Versus Its Romance Alternative3.2.3 Beyond Exotic Romance and Notions of a DividedWorld4 Romance, Interconnected Histories and a Future Beyond Divisions in Kamila Shamsie's Novels4.1 Replacing Exotic Romance with Transcultural Romance: A God in Every Stone (2014)4.1.1 Deconstructing Exotic Romance - RejectingImaginaries of Division4.1.1.1 A World 'Apart': an Imperial Fantasy4.1.1.2 From Seeing a Connected World to Becoming Involved 4.1.1.3 Rethinking Global Feminism: Towards a Transcultural Solidarity4.1.2 Transcultural Romance and Shamsie's RevisionistHistory4.2 Visions for a World at Peace: The Troubled Romance Plots of Burnt Shadows (2009) and Kartography (2002)4.2.1 Against Classifications: Romance in Burnt Shadows4.2.1.1 The 'Ghost of Konrad Weiss': Transcultural Romance and Cosmopolitan Lifeworlds4.2.1.2 Endangered Romance: Romance Versus the Logic of Typification4.2.2 Kartography's Romance of Connections4.2.2.1 Two Love Stories and the Hope for a ReconciledPakistan4.2.2.2 (Un)seeing Connections and the Motif of the Barrier: Politicising Genre Conventions4.2.2.3 Beyond a National Tale: Connecting karachi and Connecting the World5 From Alternative Visions to Alternative Worlds: Postcolonial Romance in Context6 Bibliography Lisa Schwander hat am Lehrstuhl für Anglistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft der Universität Mannheim gelehrt und promoviert.
