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John C Hawley

  • Emeritus Professor of English, researcher in postcolonial studies, gender studies, the intersection of literature an... moreedit
When the Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced the fatwa against the novelist Salman Rushdie in 1989, the world awoke to the question which unifies the fifteen essays in this volume: What is the contentious relationship between the world\u27s... more
When the Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced the fatwa against the novelist Salman Rushdie in 1989, the world awoke to the question which unifies the fifteen essays in this volume: What is the contentious relationship between the world\u27s fastest growing religion and an increasingly secular literary world? Recognizing the convergence between Islam\u27s religious concerns and the political agenda it shares with many postcolonial emerging nations, noted international scholars address issues of authorization, the role of gender, and the pluralism among Islamic (and non-Arabic) cultures. After providing a historical context for current crises, the essayists discuss the coming cultural enrichment and potential threat.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/1244/thumbnail.jp
Firdaus Kanga was born in Bombay with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), a condition that prevented his bones from growing beyond a certain point. Also this condition meant that his bones had the potential of breaking easily.... more
Firdaus Kanga was born in Bombay with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), a condition that prevented his bones from growing beyond a certain point. Also this condition meant that his bones had the potential of breaking easily. As a result, he spent most of his early years bedridden, not attending school, leaving his home only occasionally to attend the cinema with his family. It was not until he was nineteen that he obtained his first wheelchair. Kanga \u27s family expected him to become a solicitor, but he did not find his experiences in law school satisfying. On the other hand, he did study journalism and, in 1987, was awarded a prize in a British Council short-story competition. After receiving a degree in history from the University of Bombay, he moved to England in 1989 and it was there that his publishing career began with the appearance of Trying to Grow in 1990 and a travelogue, Heaven on Wheels, the next year. He is now working on a second novel, which is set in...
Colonialism and its aftermath prompt a form of cultural studies that seeks to address questions of identity politics and justice that are the ongoing legacy of empires. Postcolonial theory has its origins in resistance movements,... more
Colonialism and its aftermath prompt a form of cultural studies that seeks to address questions of identity politics and justice that are the ongoing legacy of empires. Postcolonial theory has its origins in resistance movements, principally at the local, and frequently at nonmetropolitan, levels. Among its early thinkers, three seem of special importance: Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, and Frantz Fanon. Antonio Gram sci ( 1891- 193 7) was a founder of the Communist Party in Italy. In his Prison Notebooks (1971 ), he wrote insightfully about the proletariat, designated by him as subalterns; his thoughts regarding the responsibilities of public intellectuals inspired many, and his notion of hegemony and resistance proved influential. Paulo Freire ( 192 1- 97) was a Brazilian with a special interest in education. His Pedagogy of the Oppressed ( 1970) seeks to restore subjectivity to objectified, oppressed classes in society. Frantz Fanon ( 1925- 6 l) was a psychiatrist of Caribbean de...
Freya Madeline Stark lived for a century, and into that one hundred years she packed a life of extraordinary daring and ingenuity. Personally I would rather feel wrong with everybody else than right all by myself, she wrote in Baghdad... more
Freya Madeline Stark lived for a century, and into that one hundred years she packed a life of extraordinary daring and ingenuity. Personally I would rather feel wrong with everybody else than right all by myself, she wrote in Baghdad Sketches ( enlarged edition, 193 7); I like people different, and agree with the man who said that the worst of the human race is the number of duplicates. Such a motto defines not only her approach to the world but also the character of the woman herself. She had no duplicate. The writings that resulted from her constant travels began as wonder-filled accounts of ancient storybook kingdoms of the Middle East and moved impressively toward a reflective consideration of the differences between a nomadic way of life and the stable urbanity that might have been her lot if she had decided to fit the mold of those around her. In these accounts of her own transformation she brought a growing body of readers not only into exotic locales but also to the brink o...
According to tradition and to the early church historian Eusebius, Christianity was preached in Ethiopia by the apostle Matthew before it reached Europe; Mark the evangelist is said to have established the church in Alexandria in 43 C.E.... more
According to tradition and to the early church historian Eusebius, Christianity was preached in Ethiopia by the apostle Matthew before it reached Europe; Mark the evangelist is said to have established the church in Alexandria in 43 C.E. What is clear is that some of the most important early Christian theologians were from northern Africa: Augustine, from present-day Algeria, and Clement and Origen, from present-day Egypt. The monastic movement in the early church drew its inspiration from these writers. By the 4th century, Christianity was well established in what are today Ethiopia and Eritrea, and was centered in a city called Aksum. From the 6th to 14th centuries, it flourished in what is now Sudan. Coptic Christianity, as it is now known, flourished as the majority faith in this northeastern section of Africa until the end of the 14th century, and is still vibrant in the area. Though considerably diminished by the Arabic conquest of northern Africa, Christianity nonetheless con...
James Baldwin’s remarkable second novel, Giovanni’s Room (1956) influenced all subsequent gay writing—not only in its themes, but also in its tone. Paying frequent homage to that book, Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance and other... more
James Baldwin’s remarkable second novel, Giovanni’s Room (1956) influenced all subsequent gay writing—not only in its themes, but also in its tone. Paying frequent homage to that book, Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance and other fiction of the Eighties taught gay men how to be gay, and the melancholic tone these novels created persisted for decades to come, exemplified most recently in Garth Greenwell’s What Belongs to You (2016). An unexpressed loss imbues the work of David Leavitt, Edmund White, Larry Kramer, Michael Cunningham, and Alan Hollinghurst, but the argument here is that more recent protagonists are, if anything, even more solitary than those in the bathhouses and discos of the Eighties
Ardashir Vakil was born in Bombay; his father was a nationally famous lawyer ( vakil means lawyer, in fact) and his mother established a number of bookstores. Vaki l attended St. Mary\u27s School and finished his schooling at The Doon... more
Ardashir Vakil was born in Bombay; his father was a nationally famous lawyer ( vakil means lawyer, in fact) and his mother established a number of bookstores. Vaki l attended St. Mary\u27s School and finished his schooling at The Doon School in the footh ills of the Himalayas before moving to Great Britain to take an English degree at Magdalene College in Cambridge. He lives in London with his wife and two daughters. He currently teaches at the Homsey School for Girls. While continuing to teach four days a week, he is working on his second novel, which is set in London
Eddie Iroh made the observation that writers of his generation, who had lived through the Biafran conflict, were too close to the suffering to write the definitive accounts of the war, and that the task would fall to later generations.... more
Eddie Iroh made the observation that writers of his generation, who had lived through the Biafran conflict, were too close to the suffering to write the definitive accounts of the war, and that the task would fall to later generations. This essay looks at three later accounts Dulue Mbachu’s War Games (2005), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Uzodinma Iweala’s Beast of No Nation (2005) to assess the war’s impact on Nigerian cultural expression in the twenty-first century. As the eldest of the three writers, Mbachu lingers more on the war itself than do the other two, but far less than its contemporaries like Achebe. Adichie portray the war as a backdrop for interpersonal ethical questions, and Iweala, as an unnamed conflict that stands in the place of all such juggernauts against the poor, and especially these days against child soldiers
“The world's largest Christian church is in the Ivory Coast capital of Yamoussoukro. The multimillion-dollar basilica rises out of the slums of the city and was supposed to provide social services for the poor in the developing... more
“The world's largest Christian church is in the Ivory Coast capital of Yamoussoukro. The multimillion-dollar basilica rises out of the slums of the city and was supposed to provide social services for the poor in the developing African country. But the social projects never materialized, and the church sits mostly empty during mass.” So we are told by NPR’s morning edition, March 24, 2005. What is even more startling is that less than 10 percent of Ivory Coast’s 15 million people is Catholic. Former president Felix Houphouet-Boigny was the mastermind of the cathedral, and he figures in Ahmadou Kourouma’s Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals (1998). Like Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s recent novel, Wizard of the Crow (2006), in which the leader announces a plan to build the world’s tallest building, a good deal of contemporary African fiction understandably fixates on dictators. But Deyan Sudjic, architecture critic for the Observer, notes that this fascination with rendering oneself a permanent fixture on the horizon is nothing new. What is fascinating, in the context of this conference, is the forces not only of nature but also of the people in Africa that well up as a counterforce for such fixity. These two novels will serve as a workshop for this opposition between the massive intransigence symbolized by temples, palaces, and the Big Men who build them, versus the monsoon, the earthquake, the sardonic laughter, the common human empathy, the telling folk tale – even the apparent magic and encroachment by something transcendent – that recurs in the same societies. If individuals like Ngugi, who know suffering first hand, can continue to find in literature an avenue that may speak truth to power, we readers can be reminded that writing is not just the distraction that many imagine it to be, but is instead a recurring reminder of the common humanity that is finally more enduring than the ego, or detritus, of many a world leader.
Augustus Samuel Mein-Sun Lee was born in San Francisco on August 8, 1946, the only son of Tsung-Chi Lee and Da-Tsien Tsu. His three sisters had been born in mainland China and accompanied his mother on the difficult trek across China to... more
Augustus Samuel Mein-Sun Lee was born in San Francisco on August 8, 1946, the only son of Tsung-Chi Lee and Da-Tsien Tsu. His three sisters had been born in mainland China and accompanied his mother on the difficult trek across China to India and then to the United States in 1944. There, the family rejoined Tsung-Cbi, wbo had once been a major in the Kuomintang army and who, since 1939, had been working in San Francisco for the Bank of Canton. When Gus was only five, his mother died of breast cancer, and his father, two years later, married a severe Pennsylvania Dutch woman. Gus grew up in the Panhandle and the Haight, a predominantly African American area of San Francisco, and he had a difficult time becoming accepted. He joined the Young Men\u27s Christian Association (YMCA) and learned to box
Christian Missions and the Enlightenment. Edited by Brian Stanley. Michigan and Cambridge, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company/Richmond, Surrey, Curzon Press Ltd, 2001. xi, 246 pp, bibliog., index. ISBN 0802839029. £60. The Church... more
Christian Missions and the Enlightenment. Edited by Brian Stanley. Michigan and Cambridge, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company/Richmond, Surrey, Curzon Press Ltd, 2001. xi, 246 pp, bibliog., index. ISBN 0802839029. £60. The Church Mission Society and World Christianity, 1799–1999. Edited by Kevin Ward and Brian Stanley. Michigan and Cambridge, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company/Richmond, Surrey, Curzon Press Ltd, 2000. xviii, 382 pp, illus., bibliog., index. ISBN 0802838758. £50. On the Missionary Trail. The classic Georgian adventure of two Englishmen sent on a journey around the world 1821–29. By Tom Hiney. London, Chatto & Windus, 2000. ix, 367 pp, maps, illus., notes, bibliog., index. ISBN 0701167106; paperback. London, Vintage, 2001. ISBN 0099285975. A History of the Churches in Australasia. By Ian Breward. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2001. xxi, 474 pp, maps, bibliog., gloss., index. ISBN 0198263562. £65. Tongan Anglicans 1902–2002. From the Church of England Mission in Tonga to the Tongan Anglican Church. Edited by Allan K. Davidson. Auckland, College of the Diocese of Polynesia, 2002. 158 pp, illus., notes, apps. ISBN 0473086514. $NZ25.00.
I: In Culture and Imperialism Edward Said discusses internationality and cosmopolitanism against the backdrop of the Gulf War, and Rée's view that the "nation-form is a kind of false consciousness", as if it were "an... more
I: In Culture and Imperialism Edward Said discusses internationality and cosmopolitanism against the backdrop of the Gulf War, and Rée's view that the "nation-form is a kind of false consciousness", as if it were "an expression of popular subjective will" (Said, 1993: 10). But Abstract II: In Culture and Imperialism Edward Said analizza internazionalità e cosmopolitismo sullo sfondodella Guerra del Golfo e dell'opinione di Rée secondo cui la "nation-form is a kind of false consciousness", come se questa fosse "an expression of popular subjective will" (Said, 1993: 10). Ma il monopolio del potere da parte di autorità nazionali centrali produce rappresentazioni in cui "processes which are actually the effect of internationality are experienced as an expression of the natures of different nations and their individual members" (Said, 1993: 10, mio corsivo). Tuttavia il nazionalismo è problematico nei paesi che furono, per così ...
... Page 4. SUNY SERIES, POSTMODERN CULTURE Joseph Natoli, Editor Page 5. ... An Other Tongue. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994. Benitez-Rojo, Antonio. ... Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991. Carlisle, Janice, and Daniel... more
... Page 4. SUNY SERIES, POSTMODERN CULTURE Joseph Natoli, Editor Page 5. ... An Other Tongue. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994. Benitez-Rojo, Antonio. ... Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991. Carlisle, Janice, and Daniel Schwarz, eds. Narrative and Culture. ...
Eddie Iroh made the observation that writers of his generation, who had lived through the Biafran conflict, were too close to the suffering to write the definitive accounts of the war, and that the task would fall to later generations.... more
Eddie Iroh made the observation that writers of his generation, who had lived through the Biafran conflict, were too close to the suffering to write the definitive accounts of the war, and that the task would fall to later generations. This essay looks at three later accounts-Dulue Mbachu's War Games (2005), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Uzodinma Iweala's Beast of No Nation (2005)-to assess the war's impact on Nigerian cultural expression in the twenty-first century. As the eldest of the three writers, Mbachu lingers more on the war itself than do the other two, but far less than its contemporaries like Ache be. Adichie portray the war as a backdrop for interpersonal ethical questions, and Iweala, as an unnamed conflict that stands in the place of all such juggernauts against the poor, and especially these days against child soldiers. Darkness descended on him, and when it lifted he knew that he would never see Kainene again and that his...

And 92 more

This book reclaims postcolonial theory, addressing persistent limitations in the geographical, disciplinary, and methodological assumptions of its dominant formations. It emerges, however, from an investment in the future of postcolonial... more
This book reclaims postcolonial theory, addressing persistent limitations in the geographical, disciplinary, and methodological assumptions of its dominant formations. It emerges, however, from an investment in the future of postcolonial studies and a commitment to its basic premise: namely, that literature and culture are fundamental to the response to structures of colonial and imperial domination. To a certain extent, postcolonial theory is a victim of its own success, not least because of the institutionalization of the insights that it has enabled. Now that these insights no longer seem new, it is hard to know what the field should address beyond its general commitments. Yet the renewal of popular anti-imperial energies across the globe provides an important opportunity to reassert the political and theoretical value of the postcolonial as a comparative, interdisciplinary, and oppositional paradigm. This collection makes a claim for what postcolonial theory can say through the work of scholars articulating what it still cannot or will not say. It explores ideas that a more aesthetically sophisticated postcolonial theory might be able to address, focusing on questions of visibility, performance, and literariness. Contributors highlight some of the shortcomings of current postcolonial theory in relation to contemporary political developments such as Zimbabwean land reform, postcommunism, and the economic rise of Asia. Finally, they address the disciplinary, geographical, and methodological exclusions from postcolonial studies through a detailed focus on new disciplinary directions (management studies, international relations, disaster studies), overlooked locations and perspectives (Palestine, Weimar Germany, the commons), and the necessity of materialist analysis for understanding both the contemporary world and world literary systems.

Contents:

Introduction Anna Bernard, Ziad Elmarsafy, and Stuart Murray Part 1: Disciplinary Constellations: New Forms of Knowledge
1. Capitalizing on English Literature: Disciplinarity, Academic Labor and Postcolonial Studies Claire Westall
2. Dangerous Relations? Lessons from the Interface of Postcolonial Studies and International Relations Simon Obendorf
3. Managing Postcolonialism Mrinalini Greedharry and Pasi Ahonen
4. Postcolonial Modernism: Shame and National Form John C. Hawley
Part 2: Case Studies: Geocultures, Topographies, Occlusions
5. Gaps, Silences and Absences: Palestine and Postcolonial Studies Patrick Williams
6. Facing/Defacing Robert Mugabe: Land Reclamation, Race and the End of Colonial Accountability Ashleigh Harris
7. Staging the Mulata: Performing Cuba Alison Fraunhar
8. Amongst the Cannibals: Articulating Masculinity in Postcolonial Weimar Germany Eva Bischoff
9. Postcolonial Postcommunism? Cristina Sandru
Part 3: Horizons: Environment, Materialism, World
10. Neoliberalism, Genre and the "Tragedy of the Commons" Rob Nixon
11. Reading Fanon Reading Nature Jennifer Wenzel
12. Towards a Postcolonial Disaster Studies Anthony Carrigan 13. If Oil Could Speak, What Would It Say? Crystal Bartolovich 14. Inherit the World: World-Literature, "Rising Asia" and the World-Ecology Sharae Deckard