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41 - Reading World Literature through the Postcolonial and Diasporic Lens

from Part VIII - Modes of Reading and Circulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2021

By
Ato Quayson
Edited by
Debjani Ganguly
Debjani Ganguly
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
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Summary

This chapter explores the relationship between postcolonialism, diaspora, and world literature. Taking as a starting premise the complex nature of Jorge Luis Borges’s the Library of Babel as a starting point, it traces the shift in critical orientations between Commonwealth Literature to Postcolonial Literature, and looks at the significance of diaspora literary studies in providing new metaphors by which to look to think about circulation both in the library and in the world of population movements more generally. It is suggested the library of the republic of letters is enriched by viewing it as exemplifying these two distinctive modes.

Keywords

postcolonialismdiasporadiasporic imaginarylibrary of babelcirculation
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of World Literature , pp. 804 - 820
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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