Podcasts about naipaul

British novelist and non-fiction writer

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Best podcasts about naipaul

Latest podcast episodes about naipaul

New Books Network
Brutalism

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2025 18:32


In this episode of High Theory Nasser Mufti talks with us about Brutalism. A twentieth century architectural style featuring imposing structures made of a lot of concrete, brutalist structures tend to provoke strong reactions. People either love it or they hate it – you never get a middling conversation about brutalism. Often used for government buildings, university libraries, and hospitals, Nasser suggests it represents the architecture of the state itself, massive bureaucratic structures in which we get lost, but also perhaps, nostalgia for a state that actually takes care of its citizens. Before we recorded the episode, Nasser sent me this article about the Brutalist campus at the University of Illinois where he works, which is full of beautiful black and white images. In the episode he refers to a line in Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1853), which describes Chesney Wold as “seamed by time.” And he reminds us that verb form “decolonizing” is quite new, even Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986) only uses the gerund in the title. The neologism “decolonizing” is distinct from the world historical project of decolonization and the historiographic method of decolonial analysis that comes from Latin American studies. Nasser Mufti is an associate professor of English at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where his research and teaching focuses on nineteenth century British and postcolonial literature and theory. He is especially interested in literary approaches to the study of nationalism. His first book, Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture (Northwestern University Press, 2018) argues that narratives of civil war energized and animated nineteenth-century British imperialism and decolonization in the twentieth century. You can read it online, open access, which is pretty damn cool! He is working on two new projects, the first, tentatively titled Britain's Nineteenth Century, 1963-4, looks at how anticolonial and postcolonial thinkers from the Anglophone world turned to nineteenth century British literature and culture as a way to think decolonization. The second, titled “Colonia Moralia,” examines the dialectics of postcolonial Enlightenment through comparative readings of T.W. Adorno and V.S. Naipaul. The image for this episode is a photograph of Boston City Hall, a Brutalist building mentioned in the episode. The black and white photograph shows an interior courtyard of the building, a large concrete structure with many windows, located at One City Hall Square, Boston, Suffolk County, MA. It comes from the US Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Collections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

New Books in Architecture

In this episode of High Theory Nasser Mufti talks with us about Brutalism. A twentieth century architectural style featuring imposing structures made of a lot of concrete, brutalist structures tend to provoke strong reactions. People either love it or they hate it – you never get a middling conversation about brutalism. Often used for government buildings, university libraries, and hospitals, Nasser suggests it represents the architecture of the state itself, massive bureaucratic structures in which we get lost, but also perhaps, nostalgia for a state that actually takes care of its citizens. Before we recorded the episode, Nasser sent me this article about the Brutalist campus at the University of Illinois where he works, which is full of beautiful black and white images. In the episode he refers to a line in Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1853), which describes Chesney Wold as “seamed by time.” And he reminds us that verb form “decolonizing” is quite new, even Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986) only uses the gerund in the title. The neologism “decolonizing” is distinct from the world historical project of decolonization and the historiographic method of decolonial analysis that comes from Latin American studies. Nasser Mufti is an associate professor of English at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where his research and teaching focuses on nineteenth century British and postcolonial literature and theory. He is especially interested in literary approaches to the study of nationalism. His first book, Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture (Northwestern University Press, 2018) argues that narratives of civil war energized and animated nineteenth-century British imperialism and decolonization in the twentieth century. You can read it online, open access, which is pretty damn cool! He is working on two new projects, the first, tentatively titled Britain's Nineteenth Century, 1963-4, looks at how anticolonial and postcolonial thinkers from the Anglophone world turned to nineteenth century British literature and culture as a way to think decolonization. The second, titled “Colonia Moralia,” examines the dialectics of postcolonial Enlightenment through comparative readings of T.W. Adorno and V.S. Naipaul. The image for this episode is a photograph of Boston City Hall, a Brutalist building mentioned in the episode. The black and white photograph shows an interior courtyard of the building, a large concrete structure with many windows, located at One City Hall Square, Boston, Suffolk County, MA. It comes from the US Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Collections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/architecture

New Books Network
Sumana Roy, "Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries" (Yale UP, 2024)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2024 64:18


Who is a provincial? In Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries (Yale UP, 2024), Sumana Roy assembles a striking cast of writers, artists, filmmakers, cricketers, tourist guides, English teachers, lovers and letter writers, private tutors and secret-keepers whose lives and work provide varied answers to that question. Combining memoir with the literary, sensory, and emotional history of an ignored people, she challenges the metropolitan's dominance to reclaim the joyous dignity of provincial life, its tics and taunts, enthusiasms and tragicomedies. In a wide-ranging series of “postcards” from the peripheries of India, Europe, America, and the Middle East, Roy brings us deep into the imaginative world of those who have carried their provinciality like a birthmark. Ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to William Shakespeare, John Clare to the Bhakti poets, T. S. Eliot to J. M. Coetzee, V. S. Naipaul to the Brontës, and Kishore Kumar to Annie Ernaux, she celebrates the provincials' humor and hilarity, playfulness and irony, belatedness and instinct for carefree accidents and freedom. Her unprecedented account of provincial life offers an alternative portrait of our modern world. Arnab Dutta Roy is Assistant Professor of World Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Florida Gulf Coast University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

New Books in Literary Studies
Sumana Roy, "Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries" (Yale UP, 2024)

New Books in Literary Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2024 64:18


Who is a provincial? In Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries (Yale UP, 2024), Sumana Roy assembles a striking cast of writers, artists, filmmakers, cricketers, tourist guides, English teachers, lovers and letter writers, private tutors and secret-keepers whose lives and work provide varied answers to that question. Combining memoir with the literary, sensory, and emotional history of an ignored people, she challenges the metropolitan's dominance to reclaim the joyous dignity of provincial life, its tics and taunts, enthusiasms and tragicomedies. In a wide-ranging series of “postcards” from the peripheries of India, Europe, America, and the Middle East, Roy brings us deep into the imaginative world of those who have carried their provinciality like a birthmark. Ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to William Shakespeare, John Clare to the Bhakti poets, T. S. Eliot to J. M. Coetzee, V. S. Naipaul to the Brontës, and Kishore Kumar to Annie Ernaux, she celebrates the provincials' humor and hilarity, playfulness and irony, belatedness and instinct for carefree accidents and freedom. Her unprecedented account of provincial life offers an alternative portrait of our modern world. Arnab Dutta Roy is Assistant Professor of World Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Florida Gulf Coast University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

New Books in Intellectual History
Sumana Roy, "Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries" (Yale UP, 2024)

New Books in Intellectual History

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2024 64:18


Who is a provincial? In Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries (Yale UP, 2024), Sumana Roy assembles a striking cast of writers, artists, filmmakers, cricketers, tourist guides, English teachers, lovers and letter writers, private tutors and secret-keepers whose lives and work provide varied answers to that question. Combining memoir with the literary, sensory, and emotional history of an ignored people, she challenges the metropolitan's dominance to reclaim the joyous dignity of provincial life, its tics and taunts, enthusiasms and tragicomedies. In a wide-ranging series of “postcards” from the peripheries of India, Europe, America, and the Middle East, Roy brings us deep into the imaginative world of those who have carried their provinciality like a birthmark. Ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to William Shakespeare, John Clare to the Bhakti poets, T. S. Eliot to J. M. Coetzee, V. S. Naipaul to the Brontës, and Kishore Kumar to Annie Ernaux, she celebrates the provincials' humor and hilarity, playfulness and irony, belatedness and instinct for carefree accidents and freedom. Her unprecedented account of provincial life offers an alternative portrait of our modern world. Arnab Dutta Roy is Assistant Professor of World Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Florida Gulf Coast University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

New Books in Art
Sumana Roy, "Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries" (Yale UP, 2024)

New Books in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2024 64:18


Who is a provincial? In Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries (Yale UP, 2024), Sumana Roy assembles a striking cast of writers, artists, filmmakers, cricketers, tourist guides, English teachers, lovers and letter writers, private tutors and secret-keepers whose lives and work provide varied answers to that question. Combining memoir with the literary, sensory, and emotional history of an ignored people, she challenges the metropolitan's dominance to reclaim the joyous dignity of provincial life, its tics and taunts, enthusiasms and tragicomedies. In a wide-ranging series of “postcards” from the peripheries of India, Europe, America, and the Middle East, Roy brings us deep into the imaginative world of those who have carried their provinciality like a birthmark. Ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to William Shakespeare, John Clare to the Bhakti poets, T. S. Eliot to J. M. Coetzee, V. S. Naipaul to the Brontës, and Kishore Kumar to Annie Ernaux, she celebrates the provincials' humor and hilarity, playfulness and irony, belatedness and instinct for carefree accidents and freedom. Her unprecedented account of provincial life offers an alternative portrait of our modern world. Arnab Dutta Roy is Assistant Professor of World Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Florida Gulf Coast University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/art

Political Philosophy
The Fragmented Self in Modern Liberalism (V.S. Naipaul, One Out of Many, 3) & Future Plans

Political Philosophy

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2024


Laurie wraps up her discussion of VS Naipaul's short story One Out of Many, from In a Free State. The discussion centers around the various forms and impacts of liberal modernity and the dislocations it causes. Hillbilly Elegy bookclub is also briefly mentioned. … More The Fragmented Self in Modern Liberalism (V.S. Naipaul, One Out of Many, 3) & Future Plans

Political Philosophy
Dislocation: Alone in the World (One Out of Many/In a Free State, V.S. Naipaul) Gap in God’s Country

Political Philosophy

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2024


Laurie discusses the experience of dislocation and disembedding through a story by V.S. Naipaul, "One Out of Many." The book the story is from is In a Free State, also by Naipaul. … More Dislocation: Alone in the World (One Out of Many/In a Free State, V.S. Naipaul) Gap in God’s Country

Conversations with Tyler
Benjamin Moser on the Dutch Masters, Brazil, and Cultural Icons

Conversations with Tyler

Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2024 66:08


Take our Listener Survey Benjamin Moser is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer celebrated for his in-depth studies of literary and cultural figures such as Susan Sontag and Clarice Lispector. His latest book, which details a twenty-year love affair with the Dutch masters, is one of Tyler's favorite books on art criticism ever. Benjamin joined Tyler to discuss why Vermeer was almost forgotten, how Rembrandt was so productive, what auctions of the old masters reveals about current approaches to painting, why Dutch art hangs best in houses, what makes the Kunstmuseum in the Hague so special, why Dutch students won't read older books, Benjamin's favorite Dutch movie, the tensions within Dutch social tolerance, the joys of living in Utrecht, why Latin Americans make for harder interview subjects, whether Brasilia works as a city, why modernism persisted in Brazil, how to appreciate Clarice Lispector, Susan Sontag's (waning) influence, V.S. Naipaul's mentorship, Houston's intellectual culture, what he's learning next, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded February 15th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here. Photo Credit: Philippe Quaisse

Close Readings
Human Conditions: ‘A House for Mr Biswas' by V.S. Naipaul

Close Readings

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2024 10:58


In A House for Mr Biswas, his 1961 comic masterpiece, V.S. Naipaul pays tribute to his father and the vanishing world of his Trinidadian youth. Pankaj Mishra joins Adam Shatz in their first of four episodes to discuss the novel, a pathbreaking work of postcolonial literature and a particularly powerful influence on Pankaj himself. They explore Naipaul's fraught relationship to modernity, and the tensions between his attachment to individual freedom and his insistence on the constraints imposed by history. This is an extract from the episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsPankaj Mishra is a writer, critic and reporter who regularly contributes to the LRB. His books include Age of Anger: A History of the Present, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia and two novels, most recently Run and Hide.Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Always Take Notes
#184: Paul Theroux, novelist and travel writer

Always Take Notes

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2024 61:16


Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux. Born in Massachusetts, as a young man he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi and taught at universities in Uganda and Singapore. He published his first novel, "Waldo", in 1967, and since then has written numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, including "The Great Railway Bazaar" (1975), "The Mosquito Coast" (1981), "Riding the Iron Rooster" (1983), and "Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories" (2014). In 2015 Paul was awarded a Royal Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for "the encouragement of geographical discovery through travel writing". His other awards include the American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters Award for literature; the Whitbread Prize, and the James Tait Black Award. His novels "Saint Jack", "The Mosquito Coast", "Doctor Slaughter" and "Half Moon Street" have all been adapted for film and television. We spoke to Paul about building a career as both a travel writer and a novelist, his relationship with V.S. Naipaul, and his new novel, "Burma Sahib."  “Always Take Notes: Advice From Some Of The World's Greatest Writers” - a book drawing on our podcast interviews - is published by Ithaka Press. You can order it via ⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Hatchards⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠Waterstones⁠⁠⁠⁠. You can find us online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠alwaystakenotes.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/alwaystakenotes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.

CRUSADE Channel Previews
The CRUSADE Channel Newscast For Tuesday, 09 April 2024

CRUSADE Channel Previews

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2024


The CRUSADE Channel Newscast For April 09, 2024!News Anchor Janet Huxley brings you CRUSADE Channel Newscasts for Tuesday April 09, 2024. Includes, today's National Calendar Day observations, today's Saint of the Day and today's Quote of the Day! /*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 20-03-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}NEW PODCAST RELEASES insert_link The Early Show The Mid-Day Show-The Lost Art Of Map Reading today04/05/2024 7 insert_link 2 The Mike Church Show The Mike Church Show-Biden Brings U.S. Closer To WWIII today04/05/2024 98 2 insert_link 1 Parrottalk Parrott Talk-The 2024 Election Is THE Battle Between The Forces Of Good And Evil today04/04/2024 140 1 insert_link The Fiorella Files The Fiorella Files-Jensen, Naipaul, and Backman today04/04/2024 3 insert_link ReConquest Reconquest Episode 416: The Events of Easter Day. Guest: Sister Maria Philomena, M.I.C.M. today04/04/2024 22 insert_link CRUSADE Shows The Mike Church Show-Why Is Speaker Johnson Acting Like Someone Is Blackmailing Him? today04/04/2024 104

CRUSADE Channel Previews
The CRUSADE Channel Newscast For Friday, 05 April 2024

CRUSADE Channel Previews

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2024


/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 20-03-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}The 2024 Crusader Congress Begins /*! elementor-pro - v3.20.0 - 20-03-2024 */ .elementor-widget-countdown .elementor-countdown-expire--message{display:none;padding:20px;text-align:center}.elementor-widget-countdown .elementor-countdown-wrapper{flex-direction:row}.elementor-widget-countdown .elementor-countdown-item{padding:20px 0;text-align:center;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-countdown .elementor-countdown-digits,.elementor-widget-countdown .elementor-countdown-label{line-height:1}.elementor-widget-countdown .elementor-countdown-digits{font-size:69px}.elementor-widget-countdown .elementor-countdown-label{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-countdown.elementor-countdown--label-block .elementor-countdown-wrapper{display:flex;justify-content:center;margin-right:auto;margin-left:auto}.elementor-widget-countdown.elementor-countdown--label-block .elementor-countdown-digits,.elementor-widget-countdown.elementor-countdown--label-block .elementor-countdown-label{display:block}.elementor-widget-countdown.elementor-countdown--label-block .elementor-countdown-item{flex-basis:0;flex-grow:1}.elementor-widget-countdown.elementor-countdown--label-inline{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-countdown.elementor-countdown--label-inline .elementor-countdown-item{display:inline-block;padding-left:5px;padding-right:5px} Days Hours Minutes Seconds The CRUSADE Channel Newscast For April 05, 2024!News Anchor Janet Huxley brings you CRUSADE Channel Newscasts for Friday April 05, 2024. Includes, today's National Calendar Day observations, today's Saint of the Day and today's Quote of the Day! NEW PODCAST RELEASES insert_link Parrottalk Parrott Talk-The 2024 Election Is THE Battle Between The Forces Of Good And Evil today04/04/2024 55 insert_link The Fiorella Files The Fiorella Files-Jensen, Naipaul, and Backman today04/04/2024 3 insert_link ReConquest Reconquest Episode 416: The Events of Easter Day. Guest: Sister Maria Philomena, M.I.C.M. today04/04/2024 3 insert_link CRUSADE Shows The Mike Church Show-Why Is Speaker Johnson Acting Like Someone Is Blackmailing Him? today04/04/2024 61 insert_link The Early Show The Mid-Day Show-Something Is Afoot In England today04/03/2024 3 insert_link The Mike Church Show The Mike Church Show-Trump Vows Justice For Another Child Slain By Biden's Border Bloodbath today04/03/2024 68

New Books Network
Baidik Bhattacharya, "Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024 54:27


In a radical and ambitious reconceptualization of the field, Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters (Cambridge UP, 2024) argues that global literary culture since the eighteenth century was fundamentally shaped by colonial histories. By introducing the concept of ‘literary sovereignty', the book argues that political sovereignty in colonial India went hand in hand with a massive project of textually understanding local cultures that colonial officials encountered. This in turn gave rise to paradigms such as those of comparison, fields of study such as literary history and most importantly – world literature. It offers a comprehensive account of the colonial inception of the literary sovereign – how the realm of literature was thought to be separate from history and politics – and then follows that narrative through a wide array of different cultures, multilingual archives, and geographical locations. Providing close studies of colonial archives, German philosophy of aesthetics, French realist novels, and English literary history, this book shows how colonialism shaped and reshaped modern literary cultures in decisive ways. It breaks fresh ground across disciplines such as literary studies, anthropology, history, and philosophy, and invites one to rethink the history of literature in a new light. The book also offers us tools to decolonise literary studies by highlighting the genealogies of modern ideas of world literature and comparative literature that are rooted in European colonialism. Baidik Bhattacharya works at the crossroads of literary studies, social sciences, and philosophy. His first book, Postcolonial Writing in the Era of World Literature: Texts, Territories, Globalizations (Routledge, 2018), explores the debates surrounding two dynamic fields-postcolonial studies and world literature. Contrary to many dominant narratives in critical theory, the book asserts that as an analytical framework the idea of world literature is dead: the nineteenth-century ideal of world literature had always and already been embedded in colonial histories; and, in our contemporary times, the promise of that ideal has been exhausted by postcolonial Anglophone literature. Through fresh and incisive readings of the postcolonial canon and some of its most prominent authors like Rudyard Kipling, V. S. Naipaul, J. M. Coetzee, and Salman Rushdie, the volume discusses how these Anglophone writings have used the banal and ordinary ideal of world literature to fashion out their own trajectories. Bhattacharya is the co-editor of two volumes: Baidik Bhattacharya and Sambudha Sen (eds.) Novel Formations: The Indian Beginnings of a European Genre (Permanent Black, 2018); Baidik Bhattacharya and Neelam Srivastava (eds.) The Postcolonial Gramsci (Routledge, 2012). His other works have appeared in Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Interventions, Postcolonial Studies among other places. Bhattacharya has held visiting scholarships at the University of Virginia and the University of Western Cape. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Postcolonial Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

New Books in Literary Studies
Baidik Bhattacharya, "Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

New Books in Literary Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024 54:27


In a radical and ambitious reconceptualization of the field, Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters (Cambridge UP, 2024) argues that global literary culture since the eighteenth century was fundamentally shaped by colonial histories. By introducing the concept of ‘literary sovereignty', the book argues that political sovereignty in colonial India went hand in hand with a massive project of textually understanding local cultures that colonial officials encountered. This in turn gave rise to paradigms such as those of comparison, fields of study such as literary history and most importantly – world literature. It offers a comprehensive account of the colonial inception of the literary sovereign – how the realm of literature was thought to be separate from history and politics – and then follows that narrative through a wide array of different cultures, multilingual archives, and geographical locations. Providing close studies of colonial archives, German philosophy of aesthetics, French realist novels, and English literary history, this book shows how colonialism shaped and reshaped modern literary cultures in decisive ways. It breaks fresh ground across disciplines such as literary studies, anthropology, history, and philosophy, and invites one to rethink the history of literature in a new light. The book also offers us tools to decolonise literary studies by highlighting the genealogies of modern ideas of world literature and comparative literature that are rooted in European colonialism. Baidik Bhattacharya works at the crossroads of literary studies, social sciences, and philosophy. His first book, Postcolonial Writing in the Era of World Literature: Texts, Territories, Globalizations (Routledge, 2018), explores the debates surrounding two dynamic fields-postcolonial studies and world literature. Contrary to many dominant narratives in critical theory, the book asserts that as an analytical framework the idea of world literature is dead: the nineteenth-century ideal of world literature had always and already been embedded in colonial histories; and, in our contemporary times, the promise of that ideal has been exhausted by postcolonial Anglophone literature. Through fresh and incisive readings of the postcolonial canon and some of its most prominent authors like Rudyard Kipling, V. S. Naipaul, J. M. Coetzee, and Salman Rushdie, the volume discusses how these Anglophone writings have used the banal and ordinary ideal of world literature to fashion out their own trajectories. Bhattacharya is the co-editor of two volumes: Baidik Bhattacharya and Sambudha Sen (eds.) Novel Formations: The Indian Beginnings of a European Genre (Permanent Black, 2018); Baidik Bhattacharya and Neelam Srivastava (eds.) The Postcolonial Gramsci (Routledge, 2012). His other works have appeared in Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Interventions, Postcolonial Studies among other places. Bhattacharya has held visiting scholarships at the University of Virginia and the University of Western Cape. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Postcolonial Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

New Books in Critical Theory
Baidik Bhattacharya, "Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

New Books in Critical Theory

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024 54:27


In a radical and ambitious reconceptualization of the field, Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters (Cambridge UP, 2024) argues that global literary culture since the eighteenth century was fundamentally shaped by colonial histories. By introducing the concept of ‘literary sovereignty', the book argues that political sovereignty in colonial India went hand in hand with a massive project of textually understanding local cultures that colonial officials encountered. This in turn gave rise to paradigms such as those of comparison, fields of study such as literary history and most importantly – world literature. It offers a comprehensive account of the colonial inception of the literary sovereign – how the realm of literature was thought to be separate from history and politics – and then follows that narrative through a wide array of different cultures, multilingual archives, and geographical locations. Providing close studies of colonial archives, German philosophy of aesthetics, French realist novels, and English literary history, this book shows how colonialism shaped and reshaped modern literary cultures in decisive ways. It breaks fresh ground across disciplines such as literary studies, anthropology, history, and philosophy, and invites one to rethink the history of literature in a new light. The book also offers us tools to decolonise literary studies by highlighting the genealogies of modern ideas of world literature and comparative literature that are rooted in European colonialism. Baidik Bhattacharya works at the crossroads of literary studies, social sciences, and philosophy. His first book, Postcolonial Writing in the Era of World Literature: Texts, Territories, Globalizations (Routledge, 2018), explores the debates surrounding two dynamic fields-postcolonial studies and world literature. Contrary to many dominant narratives in critical theory, the book asserts that as an analytical framework the idea of world literature is dead: the nineteenth-century ideal of world literature had always and already been embedded in colonial histories; and, in our contemporary times, the promise of that ideal has been exhausted by postcolonial Anglophone literature. Through fresh and incisive readings of the postcolonial canon and some of its most prominent authors like Rudyard Kipling, V. S. Naipaul, J. M. Coetzee, and Salman Rushdie, the volume discusses how these Anglophone writings have used the banal and ordinary ideal of world literature to fashion out their own trajectories. Bhattacharya is the co-editor of two volumes: Baidik Bhattacharya and Sambudha Sen (eds.) Novel Formations: The Indian Beginnings of a European Genre (Permanent Black, 2018); Baidik Bhattacharya and Neelam Srivastava (eds.) The Postcolonial Gramsci (Routledge, 2012). His other works have appeared in Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Interventions, Postcolonial Studies among other places. Bhattacharya has held visiting scholarships at the University of Virginia and the University of Western Cape. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Postcolonial Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

New Books in Intellectual History
Baidik Bhattacharya, "Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

New Books in Intellectual History

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024 54:27


In a radical and ambitious reconceptualization of the field, Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters (Cambridge UP, 2024) argues that global literary culture since the eighteenth century was fundamentally shaped by colonial histories. By introducing the concept of ‘literary sovereignty', the book argues that political sovereignty in colonial India went hand in hand with a massive project of textually understanding local cultures that colonial officials encountered. This in turn gave rise to paradigms such as those of comparison, fields of study such as literary history and most importantly – world literature. It offers a comprehensive account of the colonial inception of the literary sovereign – how the realm of literature was thought to be separate from history and politics – and then follows that narrative through a wide array of different cultures, multilingual archives, and geographical locations. Providing close studies of colonial archives, German philosophy of aesthetics, French realist novels, and English literary history, this book shows how colonialism shaped and reshaped modern literary cultures in decisive ways. It breaks fresh ground across disciplines such as literary studies, anthropology, history, and philosophy, and invites one to rethink the history of literature in a new light. The book also offers us tools to decolonise literary studies by highlighting the genealogies of modern ideas of world literature and comparative literature that are rooted in European colonialism. Baidik Bhattacharya works at the crossroads of literary studies, social sciences, and philosophy. His first book, Postcolonial Writing in the Era of World Literature: Texts, Territories, Globalizations (Routledge, 2018), explores the debates surrounding two dynamic fields-postcolonial studies and world literature. Contrary to many dominant narratives in critical theory, the book asserts that as an analytical framework the idea of world literature is dead: the nineteenth-century ideal of world literature had always and already been embedded in colonial histories; and, in our contemporary times, the promise of that ideal has been exhausted by postcolonial Anglophone literature. Through fresh and incisive readings of the postcolonial canon and some of its most prominent authors like Rudyard Kipling, V. S. Naipaul, J. M. Coetzee, and Salman Rushdie, the volume discusses how these Anglophone writings have used the banal and ordinary ideal of world literature to fashion out their own trajectories. Bhattacharya is the co-editor of two volumes: Baidik Bhattacharya and Sambudha Sen (eds.) Novel Formations: The Indian Beginnings of a European Genre (Permanent Black, 2018); Baidik Bhattacharya and Neelam Srivastava (eds.) The Postcolonial Gramsci (Routledge, 2012). His other works have appeared in Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Interventions, Postcolonial Studies among other places. Bhattacharya has held visiting scholarships at the University of Virginia and the University of Western Cape. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Postcolonial Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

New Books in South Asian Studies
Baidik Bhattacharya, "Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

New Books in South Asian Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024 54:27


In a radical and ambitious reconceptualization of the field, Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters (Cambridge UP, 2024) argues that global literary culture since the eighteenth century was fundamentally shaped by colonial histories. By introducing the concept of ‘literary sovereignty', the book argues that political sovereignty in colonial India went hand in hand with a massive project of textually understanding local cultures that colonial officials encountered. This in turn gave rise to paradigms such as those of comparison, fields of study such as literary history and most importantly – world literature. It offers a comprehensive account of the colonial inception of the literary sovereign – how the realm of literature was thought to be separate from history and politics – and then follows that narrative through a wide array of different cultures, multilingual archives, and geographical locations. Providing close studies of colonial archives, German philosophy of aesthetics, French realist novels, and English literary history, this book shows how colonialism shaped and reshaped modern literary cultures in decisive ways. It breaks fresh ground across disciplines such as literary studies, anthropology, history, and philosophy, and invites one to rethink the history of literature in a new light. The book also offers us tools to decolonise literary studies by highlighting the genealogies of modern ideas of world literature and comparative literature that are rooted in European colonialism. Baidik Bhattacharya works at the crossroads of literary studies, social sciences, and philosophy. His first book, Postcolonial Writing in the Era of World Literature: Texts, Territories, Globalizations (Routledge, 2018), explores the debates surrounding two dynamic fields-postcolonial studies and world literature. Contrary to many dominant narratives in critical theory, the book asserts that as an analytical framework the idea of world literature is dead: the nineteenth-century ideal of world literature had always and already been embedded in colonial histories; and, in our contemporary times, the promise of that ideal has been exhausted by postcolonial Anglophone literature. Through fresh and incisive readings of the postcolonial canon and some of its most prominent authors like Rudyard Kipling, V. S. Naipaul, J. M. Coetzee, and Salman Rushdie, the volume discusses how these Anglophone writings have used the banal and ordinary ideal of world literature to fashion out their own trajectories. Bhattacharya is the co-editor of two volumes: Baidik Bhattacharya and Sambudha Sen (eds.) Novel Formations: The Indian Beginnings of a European Genre (Permanent Black, 2018); Baidik Bhattacharya and Neelam Srivastava (eds.) The Postcolonial Gramsci (Routledge, 2012). His other works have appeared in Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Interventions, Postcolonial Studies among other places. Bhattacharya has held visiting scholarships at the University of Virginia and the University of Western Cape. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Postcolonial Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies

Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast
Baidik Bhattacharya, "Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024 54:27


In a radical and ambitious reconceptualization of the field, Colonialism, World Literature, and the Making of the Modern Culture of Letters (Cambridge UP, 2024) argues that global literary culture since the eighteenth century was fundamentally shaped by colonial histories. By introducing the concept of ‘literary sovereignty', the book argues that political sovereignty in colonial India went hand in hand with a massive project of textually understanding local cultures that colonial officials encountered. This in turn gave rise to paradigms such as those of comparison, fields of study such as literary history and most importantly – world literature. It offers a comprehensive account of the colonial inception of the literary sovereign – how the realm of literature was thought to be separate from history and politics – and then follows that narrative through a wide array of different cultures, multilingual archives, and geographical locations. Providing close studies of colonial archives, German philosophy of aesthetics, French realist novels, and English literary history, this book shows how colonialism shaped and reshaped modern literary cultures in decisive ways. It breaks fresh ground across disciplines such as literary studies, anthropology, history, and philosophy, and invites one to rethink the history of literature in a new light. The book also offers us tools to decolonise literary studies by highlighting the genealogies of modern ideas of world literature and comparative literature that are rooted in European colonialism. Baidik Bhattacharya works at the crossroads of literary studies, social sciences, and philosophy. His first book, Postcolonial Writing in the Era of World Literature: Texts, Territories, Globalizations (Routledge, 2018), explores the debates surrounding two dynamic fields-postcolonial studies and world literature. Contrary to many dominant narratives in critical theory, the book asserts that as an analytical framework the idea of world literature is dead: the nineteenth-century ideal of world literature had always and already been embedded in colonial histories; and, in our contemporary times, the promise of that ideal has been exhausted by postcolonial Anglophone literature. Through fresh and incisive readings of the postcolonial canon and some of its most prominent authors like Rudyard Kipling, V. S. Naipaul, J. M. Coetzee, and Salman Rushdie, the volume discusses how these Anglophone writings have used the banal and ordinary ideal of world literature to fashion out their own trajectories. Bhattacharya is the co-editor of two volumes: Baidik Bhattacharya and Sambudha Sen (eds.) Novel Formations: The Indian Beginnings of a European Genre (Permanent Black, 2018); Baidik Bhattacharya and Neelam Srivastava (eds.) The Postcolonial Gramsci (Routledge, 2012). His other works have appeared in Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Interventions, Postcolonial Studies among other places. Bhattacharya has held visiting scholarships at the University of Virginia and the University of Western Cape. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Postcolonial Studies.

The Indologia Podcast
Islam in action. VS Naipaul in Pakistan.

The Indologia Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 29, 2024 29:36


Featuring excerpts from V.S. Naipaul's book Among The Believers, this  episode sheds light on the social situation in the Islamic State of Pakistan in the 80s.  Follow me: Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/indologia⁠  Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/indologiaa/⁠ YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@indologia⁠ Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va55D2lBPzjRND3rPC0A

The NeoLiberal Round
Caribbean Thought Lecture 4 by Prof. Renaldo McKenzie at Jamaica Theological Seminary: Critical Thinking

The NeoLiberal Round

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 4, 2024 156:52


What is Critical Thinking, and why is it essential to the reflection in Caribbean Thought? This week's lecture Topic: Conceptualizing the Course: Critical Thinking and its importance to studying the Caribbean. Consider: A. What Is the Caribbean, and What is the socio-economic context? The Caribbean is an invention of the 20th century? Dependency, Uncompetitive, Developing, Paradise, Poverty, Black and Brown, “Prenetratable”. B. Where is the Caribbean, and are the Caribbean People American? Part of the “New World” C. What is Critical Thinking and how is it important to studying Caribbean Thought? Caribbean as an Invention. D. Do we have any Urban Indian Heritages in the Caribbean? Challenges Arawak to Africans thought. (Renaldo McKenzie, “Have we Misunderstood Our Heritage?” Important Topics/Contributors 1. Immigration 2. Critical Thinking – Today's Lecture 3. Subaltern/History from Below 4. Misclassified Urban Indians – UIHS – Have we misunderstood our heritage? 5. Dependent Capitalism – Renaldo McKenzie 6. Democratic Socialism – Keith and Novella Nelson 7. Neoliberal Globalization/Strategy 8. Franz Fanon/Homi Bhabha 9. Bob Marley/Louise Bennet/Rex Nettleford 10. Stephanie Black and Jamaica Kincaid 11. CLR James, Norman Girman, Walter Rodney, V.S. Naipaul, Ramesh Sarwan, Bishop, Castro and Manley/Seaga 12. Inequality, Poverty, Penetration, Theology, Technology and Opportunity Critical thinking involves challenging previously accepted truths and beliefs, a process essential in Africology and Pan-African studies that encompasses subaltern, nationalist, and post-colonialist thinking. It is thinking about thinking and rethinking what was previously thought. It promotes thinking around the periphery as against the center, transcends pragmatism, and considers Eurocentric and Afrocentric understanding of truths to digress from ethnocentrism. This form of thinking operates within these domains, aiming for specific goals. It can be likened to iconoclastic thinking, as seen when Plato shifted from the Greek notion of the warrior king to the philosopher king, prompting a reevaluation of the hero archetype. Furthermore, critical thinking within these disciplines reimagines individuals through the lens of critical race theory. Critical thinking is a widely accepted educational objective characterized by careful, goal-directed thought. While its definition may vary, it generally involves considering beliefs and knowledge critically, evaluating evidence, and drawing reasoned conclusions. John Dewey, an early advocate, described it as active, persistent consideration of beliefs in light of supporting evidence and potential findings. Over time, standardized tests have been developed to assess critical thinking abilities, with educational interventions shown to enhance them through methods like dialogue and mentoring (Critical Thinking (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cr.... The term 'critical thinking' as an educational objective traces back to the American philosopher John Dewey (1910), who often referred to it as 'reflective thinking'. Dewey defined it as the active, persistent, and meticulous examination of any belief or purported form of knowledge in light of the supporting evidence and the potential conclusions it leads to. He associated this habit of examination with a scientific mindset. Historically, critical thinking gained prominence in the 1930s through initiatives like the Eight-Year Study of the Progressive Education Association, which integrated critical thinking into educational goals. Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives further incorporated critical thinking abilities. Since then, annual conferences and educational reforms worldwide have emphasized its importance, leading to its global inclusion in curricula and assessments. This led to the development of nationalist movements and Afrocentric religions such as Rastafarianism. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/support

The Archive Project
V. S. Naipaul (Rebroadcast)

The Archive Project

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2023 56:34


Nobel Prize-winning author, V. S. Naipaul, shares and contextualizes selections from India: A Million Mutinies Now in this event from 1991.

The TeachPitch Podcast
The 12 Books I Read in 2023

The TeachPitch Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 30:59


Aldo takes you through the 12 books he read this year. Listen in and be inspired by this list of books, some of them recommended by previous guests on Messy and Masterful.  'A House for Mr. Biswas' by V.S. Naipaul: https://amzn.eu/d/davSL9e 'The Practice of Groundedness' by Brad Stuhlberg: https://amzn.eu/d/1ZLbTxx 'The Years' by Annie Ernaux: https://amzn.eu/d/gIS1yEC 'Demon Copperhead' by Barbara Kingsolver: https://amzn.eu/d/gU4zce7 ‘Siddhartha' by Herman Hesse: https://amzn.eu/d/5lIu8n3 'Man Search for Meaning' by Viktor E. Frankl: https://amzn.eu/d/8xxVVRM 'The Covenant of Water' by Abraham Verghese: https://amzn.eu/d/8147pNe ‘Afterlives' by Abdulrazak Gunrah: https://amzn.eu/d/eVSQTK3 'If You Want to Write' by Brenda Ueland: https://amzn.eu/d/fgaaGcT ‘Build The Life You Want' by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey: https://amzn.eu/d/b4596xt ‘The Big Leap' by Gay Hendricks: https://amzn.eu/d/17hnLHb ‘The Gene: An Intimate History' by Siddhartha Mukherjee: https://amzn.eu/d/57uBkhW

The Iris Murdoch Society podcast
Tiny Corner Podcast

The Iris Murdoch Society podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2023 59:58


In this episode Miles is joined by Gillian Dooley (Flinders University, Australia) and Daniel Read (Kingston University, UK) to celebrate the Twentieth Anniversary of 'From a Tiny Corner in the House of Fiction: Conversations with Iris Murdoch', a collection of interviews with Murdoch from across her career, as well as to discuss the wealth of unpublished interview and conversational material in the Kingston Archive. We discuss what we can learn about her works but, perhaps more enticingly, the woman behind them. Until the end of 2023 the collection is half price from the publisher using code JHOL23. https://uscpress.com/From-a-Tiny-Corner-in-the-House-of-Fiction Gillian Dooley is an Honorary Associate Professor in English literature at Flinders University, South Australia. She has published widely on various literary and historical topics, including Jane Austen, Iris Murdoch, J.M. Coetzee, V.S. Naipaul, and the maritime explorer Matthew Flinders. Her latest monograph is Listening to Iris Murdoch: Music, Sounds, and Silences (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), and her book She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and Music is due out from Manchester University Press in 2024. Daniel Read teaches and researches at the University of Kingston, UK. He is an editor of the Iris Murdoch Review and his first monograph, The Problem of Evil in the Fiction and Philosophy of Iris Murdoch is due to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in the 'Iris Murdoch Today' series in 2024.

London Review Podcasts
Next Year on Close Readings: Human Conditions

London Review Podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2023 25:33


In the second of three introductions to our full Close Readings programme for 2024, Adam Shatz presents his series, Human Conditions, in which he'll be talking separately to three guests – Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards – about some of the most revolutionary thought of the 20th century.Judith, Pankaj and Brent will each discuss four texts over four episodes, as they uncover the inner life of the 20th century through works that have sought to find freedom in different ways and remake the world around them. They explore, among other things, the development of arguments against racism and colonialism, the experience of artistic expression in oppressive conditions and how language has been used in politically substantive ways.Authors covered: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, V. S. Naipaul, Ashis Nandy, Doris Lessing, Nadezhda Mandelstam, W. E. B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde.First episode released on 14 January 2024, then on the fourteenth of each month for the rest of the year.How to ListenClose Readings subscriptionDirectly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsClose Readings PlusIn addition to the episodes, receive all the books under discussion; access to webinars with Adam and his guests; and shownotes and further reading from the LRB archive.On sale here from 22 November: lrb.me/plus Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Close Readings
Next Year on Close Readings: Human Conditions

Close Readings

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2023 25:33


In the second of three introductions to our full Close Readings programme for 2024, Adam Shatz presents his series, Human Conditions, in which he'll be talking separately to three guests – Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards – about some of the most revolutionary thought of the 20th century.Judith, Pankaj and Brent will each discuss four texts over four episodes, as they uncover the inner life of the 20th century through works that have sought to find freedom in different ways and remake the world around them. They explore, among other things, the development of arguments against racism and colonialism, the experience of artistic expression in oppressive conditions and how language has been used in politically substantive ways.Authors covered: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, V. S. Naipaul, Ashis Nandy, Doris Lessing, Nadezhda Mandelstam, W. E. B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde.First episode released on 14 January 2024, then on the fourteenth of each month for the rest of the year.How to ListenClose Readings subscriptionDirectly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsClose Readings PlusIn addition to the episodes, receive all the books under discussion; access to webinars with Adam and his guests; and shownotes and further reading from the LRB archive.On sale here from 22 November: lrb.me/plus Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Literary City
The Art Of The Thriller And The American Boyfriend With Ivy Ngeow

The Literary City

Play Episode Play 56 sec Highlight Listen Later Oct 24, 2023 39:37


In an essay, published in a 1964 edition of The Times Literary Supplement, V S Naipaul wrote:"The language was ours, to use as we pleased. The literature that came with it was therefore of peculiar authority, but this literature was like an alien mythology. There was, for instance, Wordsworth's notorious poem about the daffodil. A pretty little flower, no doubt; but we had never seen it. Could the poem have any meaning for us?"He was talking about the irrelevance of English language education that was bottled in the UK and served up to the colonies. He was speaking of the sensibilities that post-colonial writers must have felt when confronted with the British literary canon as their window to a worldview.He eloquently expressed the perplexity felt by post-colonial writers when confronted with the British literary canon, which had been transplanted to their educational systems. Naipaul's words not only encapsulated the sentiment of those writers but also laid the foundation for the genre known as post-colonial literature.He, along with his contemporaries, emerged as the pioneering voice of post-colonial literature, paving the way for subsequent generations. Yet, even now, the weight of the British canon lingers as a defining aspect of their literary heritage.Today, we have the privilege of introducing you to Ivy Ngeow, a remarkable Malaysian author. She embodies the spirit of this literary fusion, skillfully weaving mystery narratives with a diverse tapestry of multicultural voices. Her latest work, "The American Boyfriend," stands as a testament to her storytelling prowess. This novel traverses the landscapes of the UK and the vibrant backdrop of Florida, offering an authentic and insightful narrative that mirrors the complexities of contemporary life.Join us as we explore the enduring influence of the British canon on post-colonial literature and delve into the remarkable literary journey of Ivy Ngeow, our first Malaysian author on The Literary City.ABOUT IVY NGEOWIvy Ngeow was born and raised in Malaysia. She holds an MA in Writing from Middlesex University, where she won the 2005 Middlesex University Literary Press Prize. Her debut, Cry of the Flying Rhino (2017), was awarded the International Proverse Prize in Hong Kong. Her novels include Heart of Glass (2018), Overboard (2020) and White Crane Strikes (2022). She is the commissioning editor of the Asian Anthology New Writing series. The American Boyfriend was longlisted for the Avon x Mushers Entertainment Prize. She lives in London.Buy THE AMERICAN BOYFRIEND: https://amzn.to/3QBJiaZWHAT'S THAT WORD?!Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!",  where they discuss the phrase  "WATCHING THE PAINT DRY*CONTACT USReach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.comOr here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity Or here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/Background music by Geoff Harvey, Pixabay and Andy Warner, Tunetank

New Books Network
Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation (JP)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2023 39:19


John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Recall This Book
115* Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation (JP)

Recall This Book

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2023 39:19


John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in Literary Studies
Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation (JP)

New Books in Literary Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2023 39:19


John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

New Books in Caribbean Studies
Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation (JP)

New Books in Caribbean Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2023 39:19


John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/caribbean-studies

New Books in Biography
Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation (JP)

New Books in Biography

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2023 39:19


John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

Shadow Warrior by Rajeev Srinivasan
Ep. 110: What a difference 10 years make!

Shadow Warrior by Rajeev Srinivasan

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 30, 2023 14:49


A version of this essay was published by news18.com at https://www.news18.com/opinion/opinion-what-a-difference-ten-years-make-india-since-2014-8559632.htmlI wrote ten years ago on Rediff.com (‘The great Indian rope trick and other illusions of progress' https://www.rediff.com/news/column/the-great-indian-rope-trick-and-other-illusions-of-progress/20130716.htm) about how the average Indian is satisfied with illusion, never mind real progress. That made India a Potemkin State, where form is everything and substance is immaterial. It turns out that I was wrong: Indians do want actual progress. I might be pardoned for saying what I said then because the country was at the fag-end of the Lost Decade, 2004 to 2013, wherein things deteriorated steadily. Decline had been par for the course throughout the Nehruvian-Stalinist decades of dirigisme. Conversely, there has been noticeable change in 2014-2023.Apart from mis-steps in economic management, the political environment was also dicey. There was the appalling spectacle of a constitutional coup, as I noted at the time (‘Four ways the Congress won power by Constitutional coups' https://www.rediff.com/news/column/column-rajeev-srinivasan-4-ways-the-congress-won-power-through-constitutional-coups/20140107.htm): by colluding with the Communist Speaker in the cash-for-votes scam, the Congress clung on to power violating democratic norms. We see the same recklessness today in the US (“Let's jail the leading opposition candidate”) and in Germany (“One party is getting too popular, let's ban it”). It does not bode well. The New York Times, on August 21, 2023 ran the striking headline, “Elections Are Bad for Democracy” before changing it to “The Worst People Run for Office. It's Time for a Better Way”. Yes, democracy is too important to leave to the people. Let us elites tell them what to think. The most striking example of this uncaring State, the very nadir of its contempt for the man in the street, was the length of the chain anchoring the mug in the loo in railway compartments: just three inches too short, thus shattering the illusion that you could actually clean your bottom.  A daunting prospect for any traveler, especially because of the overwhelming stink, and a world of difference from Japan's shinkansen and their amazing high-tech loos.Recently I traveled in several train compartments, including ancient Jan Shatabdi chair cars and newish Hamsafar sleeper coaches, although, alas, not in Vande Bharat coaches yet; but I was surprised at how much better the toilets were. The ‘bio toilet' means human feces are not dumped on the tracks; they do not smell terrible, and, wonder of wonders, there is a hygiene hose/bidet that is actually long enough to do the deed.And, perhaps redundantly, the chain for the mug has been lengthened. And there is water! It is hard to explain to a non-Indian what a difference all this makes. I had a cousin who denied herself food and drink while traveling by train just so she could avoid the toilet. It is a sea-change when you are granted a little self-respect. I am reminded of the placard held by a man at a Martin Luther King rally: “I am a man”. Yes, the proverbial average Indian aam admi is a human who deserves consideration: not only Lutyens and Khan Market types.I am sorry to talk about a cringe-making topic like toilets, but this is something earthy and immediately understandable; it makes the point that India is, 76 years after the imperialists left and brown sahebs took over, finally on the march. Indians are beginning to see that they can demand respect from their rulers, and get it. Dignity, that watchword of the butler Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguro's brilliant The Remains of the Day.In a penetrating 1997 essay, “India shouldn't have fantasies about the past, but face it” (https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/from-the-archives-1997-v-s-naipaul-india-shouldn-t-have-fantasies-about-the-past-but-face-it-1988599-2022-08-16) Sir V S Naipaul mentioned that those who have been oppressed and denigrated for centuries are now rising, and this rise will be messy. He was talking about those outside the charmed circle that ruled the country for long. It is also broader: the rise of the Other Backward Communities, that uncharming name for the majority of Indians, the bahujan. Naipaul also said that the rulers will now of necessity be of the people, not overlords. It can be argued that for over a thousand years, Indians have been effectively ruled by a comprador ‘elite', middlemen who did the dirty work on behalf of invaders or distant rulers. It is my suspicion that the zamindars and other local strongmen were largely from the upper or middle jatis, and it is only now that those from the bottom of the pyramid are finally getting a say in things. No, this is not a jati-bashing exercise, and I may be extrapolating from my observations in Kerala, where a middle jati, Nairs, were the kulaks who lorded it over those below them in the hierarchy, such as OBC Ezhavas, SC Pulayas, and ST Mala-arayans. The latter are now rising, though not in full measure, yet. I think it's similar in Tamil Nadu, too. In the Soviet Union, Stalin liquidated the kulaks. In India, their eclipse has come about too late, though without violence. The usual woke Lutyens/Khan Market suspects were disappointed they couldn't chortle about Chandrayaan-3 being yet another expensive failure a poor country could ill afford, echoing Brits upset that their alleged ‘aid' was going to India (in reality, as per the UK Foreign Office, India politely declined any charity from them starting 2015; any money coming to India from the UK is foreign direct investment (FDI), or strictly in support of their geopolitical objectives, channeled via dubious NGOs or missionaries).The ‘wokes' also grumbled about ISRO engineers going to Tirupati and invoking the blessings of the Divine for their project. I am glad they got a munh thod jawab. There really is no dichotomy in Hindu thought between science and faith: science too requires faith and belief.The ‘wokes' have reason to be worried, not only by the picture-perfect moon landing, but also by Praggnaanandhaa, who almost unseated the reigning World Champion in chess; Neeraj Chopra, who won the World Athletic Championship in javelin to go with his Olympic gold; the 4x400 relay quartet with their heroics of almost defeating the Americans in the heats while setting an Asian record; and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is unabashedly Hindu and at the same time a patriotic American and a force to contend with in the Republican party in the US.Even though they haven't been defenestrated, except perhaps some unfortunate folks at Ashoka University, India's Left are less and less relevant: relics of a failed ideology. They should count their lucky stars: in Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew liquidated them. And indeed, even in the US, the ‘woke' capital of the world, their star is setting. There is another reason I brought up toilets: the unseemly obsession that westerners have with them. I was delighted to see this cartoon on Twitter, and it is obviously a parody of the earlier one in the sadly overrated New York Times, below.While the racist derision of the original cartoon, and the celebration of the be-jasmined and be-bindi'd women in Indian engineering are the obvious takeaways, I was intrigued by a detail: the white guy in the cartoon is dragging a shopping-cart full of toilet paper behind him! I am not sure why toilet paper is some kind of atavistic guilty pleasure for westerners. Despite being purely climate-related (they could not afford to melt ice and snow just to wash their bottoms, or for that matter their hands, thus cutlery), toilet paper has become a cultural staple for them. You might remember the hoarding of toilet paper in the early days of covid! It's time westerners abandoned killing trees, and went for the more healthy bidet-like health faucet. For that matter, the squat in Indian closets is apparently better than the sitting posture on a western ‘thunder-box'. Recently while traveling in the Czech Republic, I stayed in a (fancy) hotel that had a bidet: such a relief! May their tribe increase!Of course, some things never change. This was demonstrated in two ways: the thinly-veiled envy from the British that manifested itself in their assertion that an India full of open defecation shouldn't be spending on space research, and The Economist magazine in their recent obituary of Bindeswar Pathak repeatedly emphasizing caste discrimination and manual scavenging. These are vestiges of the past, and mostly due to the $10 trillion (or $45 trillion depending on whom you ask) that the Brits looted, impoverishing India. But then, who's counting?Oh, you want to talk about open defecation? Once-beautiful San Francisco is now the champion, while India has built large numbers of indoor toilets all over the country. See the ‘poop map' of San Francisco here (https://mochimachine.org/wasteland/# ).One thing that has definitely changed in the last ten years is the amount of Hindu-hatred expressed in the West, particularly America. The California caste Bill, Equality Labs, Audrey Truschke, and the latest, tech journo Kara Swisher's racist attack on Vivek Ramaswamy, are all related to the fact that Hindus have quietly become one of the most economically successful (but politically powerless) groups in the US. It is really a back-handed compliment, happily cheered on by rogues from the “Chindu” stable or similar. Caste is the weapon.Hindus tend to be defensive about caste. We shouldn't be. Caste is really a white invention, from the Portuguese casta, intended to segregate mixed-race people based on how white they are, half, quarter, one-eighth, etc: thus mulatto, quadroon, octroon, etc. It is their cross to bear. There is an ocean of difference between this caste business and jatis, but I digress..Besides, there are de facto castes in the US: the investment banker caste, the doctor caste, the lawyer caste, the management consultant caste, etc. They all go to the same tony prep schools, the same Ivy League colleges (legacy admissions mean you easily get into Harvard, if your parent(s) went to Harvard, regardless of your grades. Raj Chetty has published reams of data about this); they are endogamous; and they all miraculously end up at Goldman Sachs or McKinsey. An outsider can't break in. These castes are also Lindy (ask Nassim Taleb).Perhaps, taking a cue from other groups that have prospered, Hindus (and Indian Americans in general) are becoming ‘white', like others have before them. Irish, Italians, Jews, Japanese, Koreans, Chinese: there is a long list. ‘Whiteness' is a construct. I was flabbergasted decades ago when a well-meaning white guy said, “You guys are almost white”. I stuttered: “But, but… we are brown!”. If you have money, you pretty much become white. I give it another ten years. With India's GDP at $10 trillion, and more Hindu-Americans creating unicorns, I bet by 2034 Hindus will be ‘white'. Maybe Vivek is the first white Hindu. I am not making a value judgment, merely making a prediction. You heard it here first.1800 words, Aug 29, 2023, updated Sep 10, 2023 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com

The NeoLiberal Round
Caribbean Thought Lecture Series on 7.10.2023: Unraveling the Complexities of Caribbean Nations: A Historical Exploration

The NeoLiberal Round

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2023 167:15


This video is a recording of a Lecture for the course Caribbean Thought at Jamaica Theological Seminary presented on July 10th, 2023, by Rev. Renaldo McKenzie, Adjunct Lecturer at Jamaica Theological Seminary and Doctoral Candidate at Georgetown University. The Lecture began with Relative Deprivation before the Lecturer shared a personal testimony, prayed for a student who was absent due to illness and undergoing an operation. The Lecture then continued with the playing of a video and discussing the issue of The Law is Not a Shackle a statement by former PM of Jamaica P.J. Patterson. Renaldo was elaborating on the statement in the played video where the Foreign Minister of South Africa commented on the duplicity within international law concerning the UN General Assembly to act on Russia in Ukraine when before international law was not applied. Renaldo then discusses with the students their papers on Heritage and Haiti and one student shared and discussed his erudite interaction paper. Renaldo then delved into Some Caribbean Thinkers then ended the class on an anti-climactic note. The episode has background music and images for dynamic viewer experience. In this comprehensive lecture, Professor Renaldo Mckenzie delves into the intricate history of Caribbean nations, with a particular focus on Haiti, the first independent black republic. Drawing from the works of notable scholars such as Homi Bhabha, Frantz Fanon, V.S. Naipaul, and C. L. R. James, Renaldo sheds light on the lasting impact of colonialism, the role of global powers, and the ongoing struggle for democracy in shaping the region. He emphasizes the importance of critically analyzing historical narratives and understanding the dynamics of external intervention. Additionally, Renaldo highlights the need for solidarity among Caribbean nations and urges students to engage in contemporary events, such as Haitian migration, to foster collective responsibility and empowerment. Throughout the lecture, students are encouraged to explore the complexities of Caribbean history and contribute to informed discussions that facilitate a deeper understanding of the region's past and present challenges. The students are taking this course towards an examination leading up to a Bachelor of Arts Degree. The course is offered in the Humanities department and is a 2200 level course taken in year three or four of the student's bachelor's program. The course is a required course, but other students may register for the course as an elective. Renaldo McKenzie is the Author of Neoliberalism, Globalization Income Inequality, Poverty and Resistance and the Author of the upcoming book, Neoliberal Globalization Reconsidered, Neo-Capitalism and the Death of Nations. The Video was made by The NeoLiberal Corporation's Editing and Audio platform at The NeoLiberal Round. Visit us at https://theneoliberal.com and https://renaldocmckenzie.com. Subscribe for free on any stream and donate to us at https://anchor.fm/theneoliberal/support. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/support

The NeoLiberal Round
Caribbean Thought Lecture on July 12, 2023: Globalization is The Irony of a Nationalist's Dream

The NeoLiberal Round

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2023 174:22


Introduction: In this thought-provoking lecture delivered on July 12th, 2023, Professor Renaldo McKenzie delves into the intricate interplay between globalization, colonialism, and post-colonialism, with a focus on the Caribbean region. I. Critical Thinking and the Caribbean Socio-economic Context Professor McKenzie begins by underlining the importance of critical thinking in understanding the complex issues facing the Caribbean region. The Caribbean Socio-economic Context: The lecture provides an overview of the Caribbean's historical background and its contemporary socio-economic challenges, setting the stage for a deeper exploration of Caribbean thought. 2. Understanding Globalization and its Impact on the Caribbean Definition of Globalization: Professor McKenzie defines globalization as the ongoing process of increased interconnectedness and interdependence among countries and regions, emphasizing its historical roots in the Caribbean. Economic Globalization and Neoliberalism: Drawing on his book on "Neoliberalism, Globalization, Income Inequality, Poverty, and Resistance," Professor McKenzie explores how economic globalization, driven by neoliberal policies, has exacerbated income inequality and perpetuated poverty in the Caribbean. Cultural Globalization and Hybrid Identities: Discussing Homi Bhabha's influential work, the lecture examines how cultural globalization has led to the emergence of hybrid identities in the Caribbean, reflecting the fusion of local and global cultural elements. II. The Legacy of Colonialism and its Impact on the Caribbean Definition and Historical Context of Colonialism: Professor McKenzie provides an overview of colonialism in the Caribbean, emphasizing its detrimental impact on local economies, cultures, and social structures. Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth": The lecture delves deeply into Frantz Fanon's seminal work, exploring his analysis of the psychological and social consequences of colonialism on the colonized mind and the imperative of decolonization. Edward Seaga's Model for Development: Professor McKenzie discusses Edward Seaga's model for development in middle-income countries, evaluating its effectiveness in addressing post-colonial challenges in the Caribbean. III. Post-Colonialism and Challenges in the Caribbean Challenges of Independence: The lecture reflects on the challenges faced by post-colonial Caribbean nations, including the lingering legacies of colonial exploitation, the complexities of nation-building, and the struggle to achieve true sovereignty. V.S. Naipaul and the Caribbean Experience: Professor McKenzie explores V.S. Naipaul's exploration of the Caribbean experience, considering his perspectives on the region's cultural identity and the impact of globalization on traditional literature. Ramnaresh Sarwan's Definition of Structural Adjustment: Drawing on Ramnaresh Sarwan's insights, the lecture analyzes the effects of structural adjustment policies imposed on Caribbean economies and their implications for poverty and inequality. IV. The Paradox of Globalization and Post-Colonialism in the Caribbean Intersection of Globalization and Post-Colonialism: Professor McKenzie discusses the complex relationship between globalization and post-colonialism in the Caribbean, highlighting how globalization both promises progress and perpetuates new forms of domination. Ironies and Contrasts: The lecture emphasizes the ironies and contrasts in the Caribbean's post-colonial experience, as it navigates between nationalist aspirations/the forces of global economic subordination. Conclusion: The lecture urges students to critically engage with Caribbean literature and thinkers, reflect on the impact of globalization on the region, and seek innovative solutions to address its socio-economic disparities/cultural complexities. Visit us at https://renaldocmckenzie.com https://theneoliberal.com. Access Renaldo's textbook, Subscribe for free and Support us. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/support

The NeoLiberal Round
Lectures in Caribbean Thought Summer Semester Week 1: Conceptualizing the Course and Exploring Critical Thinking

The NeoLiberal Round

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2023 205:00


On June 7th, 2023, at Jamaica Theological Seminary: Critical thinking in Caribbean Thought: What Is the Caribbean and What is the socio-economic context? the Caribbean is an invention of the 20th century. Where is the Caribbean and are the Caribbean people Americans? What is Critical Thinking and how is it important to the study of Caribbean Thought? Do we have any Urban Indian Heritages in the Caribbean? Important Themes/Topics/Contributors: Immigration Subaltern/History from Below Misclassified Urban Indians - Dependent Capitalism – Renaldo McKenzie, Democratic Socialism – Keith and Novella Nelson, Neoliberal Globalization/ Strategy. Franz Fanon/Homi Bhabha, Bob Marley/Louise Bennet/Rex Nettleford Stephanie Black and Jamaica Kincaid, CLR James, Norman Girman, Walter Rodney, V.S. Naipaul, Ramesh Sarwan, Bishop, Castro and Manley/Seaga inequality, Poverty, Penetration, Theology, Technology and Opportunity Introduction: Define critical thinking as evaluating thoughts and challenging truths. Emphasize reflection and the pursuit of progress through critical thinking. Descartes and Existential Dilemma: Explore Descartes' quote "Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am). Note its limited proof of existence to one's own reality. Critical Thinkers Throughout History: Discuss influential thinkers like Foucault, Kant, and Marx. Highlight their challenges to norms and impact on societal progress. Post-Colonial and Post-Modern Perspectives: Question dominant narratives and institutionalism. Examples: Fanon, Bhabha, Naipaul. Analyzing and Evaluating: Describe critical thinking as metaphysical and analytical. Highlight use of logic, reason, and exploring thoughts. Fairness, Openness, and Bias: Acknowledge personal bias and examine multiple perspectives. Emphasize fair and open-minded evaluation. Developing Critical Thinking: Developed through training, exploration, and challenging beliefs. Reliance on clear reasoning and past knowledge. Postcolonial Man as a Critical Thinker: Postcolonial individuals engaging in critical thinking. Skepticism towards history and moral codes. Conclusion: Summarize key points and reinforce critical thinking as transformative. Encourage further engagement in critical thinking. Part 2: “The Negro Is Not Anymore Than the Whiteman,” Fanon What does Fanon Mean by this? Unveiling the Authentic Self: Analyzing Black, Brown, and Pan-African Struggles for Prosperity and Independence. We begin by Exploring Black, Brown, and Pan-African Struggles for Prosperity and Independence in the Context of Historical and Current Realities. Frantz Fanon's psychoanalysis of the "colonized" individual, challenging dominant perspectives and aiming for self-empowerment. Homi Bhabha further examines the disruption of colonial subjects' alignment, revealing an authentic self through a break from the norm. Shifting to Jamaica, using Mckenzie's Neoliberalism Book the Caribbean, and the Global South, this analysis acknowledges the idealized image of paradise while addressing the economic and political challenges faced by the people. Copyright: The NeoLiberal Corporation and Renaldo McKenzie, 2023. Original and full presentation by Renaldo McKenzie, 2022 (What is Critical Thinking in The NeoLiberal Journals), summarized for PowerPoint by AI. Made with Clipchamp/Zoom/ https://theneoliberal.com. Renaldo is Adjunct Professor and Author of Neoliberalism. https://renaldocmckenzie.com For references, contact us. The NeoLiberal Corporation is celebrating 2 years of service and dedication to progress, empowerment, diversity and research. We have touched over 100,000 people worldwide. We need your help to capitalize on our opportunities and potential to reach more with dynamic and innovative programming and works. Please support us: Subscribe for Free and Donate to the Podcast. Join Our Book Fund Raising Campaign Visit us - The Neoliberal is serving the world today to solve tomorrow's challenges by making popular what was the monopoly. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/support

Dev Game Club
DGC Ep 349: Metroid Prime (part one)

Dev Game Club

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2023 76:07


Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new series on Metroid Prime, which we are playing via the Nintendo Switch remaster. We set the game in its time, talk a little bit about Retro, and then wall jump into the action of the tutorial area. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Until you arrive on Tallon IV Issues covered: Tim's purging, Western developers making FPSes for Japanese publishers, basing things on the lock-on, a game set apart by art direction, a ban on 2002, Brett's bookend years, the Capcom 5, the games for GameCube, being in the helmet, attach rate, top sales, reminiscing about a former colleague, the transition to 3D and Mark HH to support, seeing the potential for the game beneath the engine, ripping away ownership of the FPS, returning to the 2D formula, doling out their lesser selling properties a bit at a time, starting with all the gadgets, taking notes when you play a Metroid game, adding accessibility via the lock-on, locking on without a target, scanning as the second thing, good world building and boss teasing, teaching you how to fight with a simple boss, the amazing music and audio design, getting to look through the helmet, augmenting the sense of embodiment, finding community in an MMO, design for addictiveness, having an engaging game and then making something punishing, taking a game too far, the golden mean, ethical free-to-play, game metrics, key performance indicators, costs of people who play a game too much, designing to encourage people to step away from time to time, the humble origins of the James Bond theme,  Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: GoldenEye 007, Splatoon, Capcom, Lost Planet, Retro Studios, Halo, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Eternal Darkness, Ratchet & Clank, Morrowind, Animal Crossing, Kingdom Hearts, Timesplitters 2, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, 2015 Games, Infinity Ward, Jedi Knight 2, NOLF 2, BF1942, GameCube, Wind Waker, Resident Evil, Super Mario Sunshine, James Bond 007: Nightfire, Metroid Fusion, Dark Cloud 2, Sly Cooper & Thievious Raccoonus, Splinter Cell, Warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights, Jedi Starfighter, LucasArts, Resident Evil 4, Republic Commando, Metroid Dread, Nintendo Switch, LoZ: Tears of the Kingdom, Geist, Shadows of the Empire, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Jon Knowles, Shigeru Miyamoto, MegaForce, Super Mario 64, LoZ: Ocarina of Time, Wired magazine, DOOM (1993), Metroid: Samus Returns, Bandai/Namco, Metroid: Other M, Mario Kart 8, Breath of the Wild, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Arkham Asylum, Unreal, Colin "The Shots," World of Warcraft, Everquest, Marvel Snap, 343 Industries, June, Aristotle, Super Mario Galaxy, Sony, Star Wars: Galaxies, Raph Koster, Ultima Online, Calamity Nolan, James Bond, Guy Morgan, Monty Norman, Bad Sign/Good Sign, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas, John Barry, Grant Kirkhope, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: Check the Discord! Links: The James Bond origin track Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord: https://t.co/h7jnG9J9lz DevGameClub@gmail.com

Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
228. Claire Dederer with Sonora Jha and Angela Garbes: Monstrous Artists

Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2023 67:40


Can we still love the work of Hemingway, Polanski, Naipaul, Miles Davis, or Picasso? Should we love it? In this unflinching, deeply personal book that expands on her instantly viral Paris Review essay, “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?” Claire Dederer asks: Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss? She explores the audience's relationship with complicated artists, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster to create something great. And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art. Claire Dederer is a bestselling memoirist, essayist, and critic. Her books include the critically acclaimed Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning, as well as Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses, which was a New York Times bestseller. Poser has been translated into eleven languages, optioned for television by Warner Bros., and adapted for the stage. Sonora Jha is the author of the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son and the novel Foreign. After a career as a journalist covering crime, politics, and culture in India and Singapore, she moved to the United States to earn a PhD in media and public affairs. Dr. Jha's op-eds, essays, and public appearances have been featured in the New York Times, on the BBC, in anthologies, and elsewhere. She is a professor of journalism at Seattle University. Her new novel, The Laughter, has opened to rave reviews from The New York Times, Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and others.  Angela Garbes is the author of Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, called “a landmark and a lightning storm” by the New Yorker. Essential Labor was named a Best Book of 2022 by both the New Yorker and NPR. Her first book, Like a Mother, was also an NPR Best Book of the Year. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, New York Magazine, and featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A first-generation Filipina American, Garbes lives with her family on Beacon Hill. Monsters The Elliott Bay Book Company

The 1st Draft
Ukraine, China, and V.S. Naipaul

The 1st Draft

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2023 28:19


This month on The 1st Draft, Robert and Dominic cover the anniversaries of the Ukraine and Iraq wars, the change in international affairs wrought by the rise of China as a full-spectrum power. They also discuss books by V. S. Naipaul and Tom Holland, and much more.

Poured Over
Kevin Jared Hosein on HUNGRY GHOSTS

Poured Over

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2023 48:33


“No one in this cast believes that they have a home — they have houses, but they don't have homes. They were born into this country, they were born into these places, but they don't feel like their homes.” Within the rich setting of 1940s Trinidad, Kevin Jared Hosein's sweeping novel Hungry Ghosts brings readers into the world of two families connected by class, power and mystery. A distinctive new voice in Caribbean literature, Hosein has crafted a story that is gothic, propulsive and will resonate with readers from the first page. He speaks with us on learning the true history of Trinidad firsthand, how the title came to be, his literary influences and more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. Listen after the episode for a TBR Topoff from Marc and Jamie.    Featured Books (Episode):  Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein  Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul  A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul  No Pain Like This Body by Harold Sonny Ladoo  The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki  The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin  Silent Spring by Rachel Carson  Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell   Sula by Toni Morrison     Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays here and on your favorite podcast app.    

The NeoLiberal Round
Caribbean Thought Lecture 5: Why "Who determines this?" and Why Must we Revisit the Past?

The NeoLiberal Round

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2023 218:13


This is Lecture 5 of Caribbean Thought, a course at the Jamaica Theological Seminary Lectured by Rev. Renaldo C. McKenzie, Dated February 10, 2023. This is a continuation of week 4 and the Lecture series towards developing a Caribbean Thought Journal. The Lecture was quite powerful as usual. We continued from week 4, conceptualizing the course Caribbean Thought when we had asked, "what is Caribbean Thought, and who determines this?" This week we ask, why who determines this and why is it important for us to revisit the past. The lecture delved into this question by lifting up a current situation in the Caribbean - The Haitian Crisis - where The US and Canada is pressuring the Caribbean to intervene in Haiti on their behalf. We examine this issue in relation to the Caribbean socio-economic challenges which has defined present realities which imposes on cultural identity. We explored this within the context of our understanding of the Caribbean being part of the pan-African struggle for not just independence but economic prosperity that allows them to compete. When we go back in history, we explore situations where the Caribbean's inability to truly realize pan-African goals in light of strategy that continue to keep these peoples and countries down - Debt. We begin the class by revisiting the conclusion of the class: "...the Caribbean represents a people who have been disrupted, detached, displaced, hybridized and made into dependent capitalist states with some level of modernity to promote consumption within the neoliberal globalized world which is largely a consumer society." We then moved into Lecture 5 by exploring the course outline: Course Description: This course focuses on and explores the diverse currents of Caribbean Thought, which have influenced the development of Caribbean societies from colonialism to independence and beyond. It traces the history of resistance and examines the quest for equality and the challenge of defining Caribbean identity within this post-colonial and neoliberal Globalized world not just within the geographic sense but also in terms of a diasporic sense.... The course surveys the history and philosophy of the Caribbean and the ways in which the Caribbean has emerged as a society in the shadow of colonialism and emergence of neoliberal Globalization. It examines the central ideological currents of twentieth century political thought in the region and covers broad topics such as Colonialism, Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, Socialism, Marxism, Feminism, Democratic Socialism and Neo-Conservatism, Neoliberalism, Globalization and Deconstructivism, Critical Race Theory, Strategy and the Foundations of Knowledge and the Hegemony of Faith, Economic Inequality and Poverty....Among the thinkers/works that will be considered throughout the course are Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, C.L.R. James, V.S. Naipaul, W. Benjamin, M. Foucault, Franz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Fidel Castro, Michael Manley, Edward Seaga, Bob Marley Kamau Brathwaite, Edouard Glissant and the Negritude movement generally, Homi Bhabha, Mike Davis, Nelson/Novella Keith, Stephanie Black and Jamaica KinCaid, Garnett Roper, Rex Nettleford and the Professor's Works. We then begin to explore Caribbean thinkers: Ramesh F. Ramsaran who wrote in the Preface of his book, "The Challenge of Structural Adjustment in the Commonwealth Caribbean," Yet we say: We celebrate #Haiti as the 1st former colonized black country to successfully lead a revolution beating Napoleon. But France turned around & charged them 24 billion to recognize their freedom which Haiti gullibly paid—that has held them down. We concluded with Edward Seaga PM of Jamaica in a 1983 Lecture: "I wish to talk to you about the strategy which I believe can best attain a quality of life for the peoples of Middle Level countries of the developing world," (Seaga, 1983, p. 23, in New Directions.) https://theneoliberal.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theneoliberal/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theneoliberal/support

The NeoLiberal Round
Caribbean Thought Lecture 5 Summary: Why "Who Determines This" and Why Revisit the Past?

The NeoLiberal Round

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 12, 2023 17:52


This is Lecture 5 of Caribbean Thought, a course at the Jamaica Theological Seminary Lectured by Rev. Renaldo C. McKenzie, Dated February 10, 2023. This is a continuation of week 4 and the Lecture series towards developing a Caribbean Thought Journal. The Lecture was quite powerful as usual. We continued from week 4, conceptualizing the course Caribbean Thought when we had asked, "what is Caribbean Thought, and who determines this?" This week we ask, why who determines this and why is it important for us to revisit the past? The lecture delved into this question by lifting up a current situation in the Caribbean - The Haitian Crisis - where The US and Canada is pressuring the Caribbean to intervene in Haiti on their behalf (See the Podcast/Youtube video with Brian Concannon). We examine this issue in relation to the Caribbean socio-economic challenges which has defined present realities which imposes on cultural identity. We explored this within the context of our understanding of the Caribbean being part of the pan-African struggle for not just independence but economic prosperity that allows them to compete. When we go back in history, we explore situations where the Caribbean's inability to truly realize pan-African goals in light of strategy that continue to keep these peoples and countries down - Debt. We begin the class by revisiting the conclusion of the class: "...the Caribbean represents a people who have been disrupted, detached, displaced, hybridized and made into dependent capitalist states with some level of modernity to promote consumption within the neoliberal globalized world which is largely a consumer society." We then moved into Lecture 5 by exploring the course outline: Course Description: This course focuses on and explores the diverse currents of Caribbean Thought, which have influenced the development of Caribbean societies from colonialism to independence and beyond. It traces the history of resistance and examines the quest for equality and the challenge of defining Caribbean identity within this post-colonial and neoliberal Globalized world not just within the geographic sense but also in terms of a diasporic sense.... The course surveys the history and philosophy of the Caribbean and the ways in which the Caribbean has emerged as a society in the shadow of colonialism and emergence of neoliberal Globalization. It examines the central ideological currents of twentieth century political thought in the region and covers broad topics such as Colonialism, Nationalism, Pan-Africanism (See Groups'2 Paper on Pan-Africanism – we defined Pan-Africanism reading from their exceptional essay which delved into Pan Africanism), Socialism, Marxism, Feminism, Democratic Socialism and Neo-Conservatism, Neoliberalism, Globalization and Deconstructivism, Critical Race Theory, Strategy and the Foundations of Knowledge and the Hegemony of Faith, Economic Inequality and Poverty....Among the thinkers/works that will be considered throughout the course are Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, C.L.R. James, V.S. Naipaul, W. Benjamin, M. Foucault, Franz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Fidel Castro, Michael Manley, Edward Seaga, Bob Marley Kamau Brathwaite, Edouard Glissant and the Negritude movement generally, Homi Bhabha, Mike Davis, Nelson/Novella Keith, Stephanie Black, Jamaica KinCaid, Garnett Roper, Rex Nettleford and the Professor's Works We then begin to explore Caribbean thinkers: Ramesh F. Ramsaran who wrote in the Preface of his book, "The structural adjustment issue is, not surprisingly, one surrounded by intense controversy and emotion. This is because it does not concern simply with economic policies or improving government performance but brings into question basic economic philosophy and ideology and may also involve the effective transfer of decision-making from local hands." The Caribbean must critically reflect on its position in relation to life...theneoliberal.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theneoliberal/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theneoliberal/support

LARB Radio Hour
Curtis White's "Transcendent"

LARB Radio Hour

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2023 52:42


Curtis White joins Kate Wolf and Eric Newman to speak about his latest essay collection, Transcendent: Art and Dharma in a Time of Collapse. The book offers an incisive critique of the Westernization of Buddhism, from its adoption by tech companies like Amazon and Google into a practice of corporate mindfulness that aids with productivity in the workplace; to its embrace by New Atheists, such as Stephen Batchelor, who argue for Buddhism without beliefs; to its reduction to being solely a matter of neuroscience. White emphasizes the more unruly, unmaterialistic aspects of the dharma—defamiliarization, passion, and metaphysical consciousness— all of which he argues share a deep connection to the work of Western artists, musicians, and poets. Writing with a fiery skepticism about techno-capitalism as the only solution to solving the world's crises, White advocates for Buddhism's place as a form of resistance and a way to think against the status quo. Also, Anand Giridharadas, author of The Persuaders, returns to recommend V.S. Naipaul's A Million Mutinies Now.

LA Review of Books
Curtis White's "Transcendent"

LA Review of Books

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2023 52:41


Curtis White joins Kate Wolf and Eric Newman to speak about his latest essay collection, Transcendent: Art and Dharma in a Time of Collapse. The book offers an incisive critique of the Westernization of Buddhism, from its adoption by tech companies like Amazon and Google into a practice of corporate mindfulness that aids with productivity in the workplace; to its embrace by New Atheists, such as Stephen Batchelor, who argue for Buddhism without beliefs; to its reduction to being solely a matter of neuroscience. White emphasizes the more unruly, unmaterialistic aspects of the dharma—defamiliarization, passion, and metaphysical consciousness— all of which he argues share a deep connection to the work of Western artists, musicians, and poets. Writing with a fiery skepticism about techno-capitalism as the only solution to solving the world's crises, White advocates for Buddhism's place as a form of resistance and a way to think against the status quo. Also, Anand Giridharadas, author of The Persuaders, returns to recommend V.S. Naipaul's A Million Mutinies Now.

New Books Network
Sanjay Krishnan, "V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center" (Columbia UP, 2020)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2022 32:40


The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

New Books in Caribbean Studies
Sanjay Krishnan, "V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center" (Columbia UP, 2020)

New Books in Caribbean Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2022 32:40


The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/caribbean-studies

New Books in Literary Studies
Sanjay Krishnan, "V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center" (Columbia UP, 2020)

New Books in Literary Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2022 32:40


The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

New Books Network
Philip Tsang, "The Obsolete Empire: Untimely Belonging in Twentieth-Century British Literature" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2022 47:58


Modernist literature at the end of the British empire challenges conventional notions of homeland, heritage, and community.The waning British empire left behind an abundance of material relics and an inventory of feelings not easily relinquished.  In The Obsolete Empire: Untimely Belonging in Twentieth-Century British Literature (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021), Philip Tsang brings together an unusual constellation of writers—Henry James, James Joyce, Doris Lessing, and V. S. Naipaul—to trace an aesthetics of frustrated attachment that emerged in the wake of imperial decline. Caught between an expansive Britishness and an exclusive Englishness, these writers explored what it meant to belong to an empire that did not belong to them.Thanks to their voracious reading of English fiction and poetry in their formative years, all of these writers experienced a richly textured world with which they deeply identified but from which they felt excluded. The literary England they imagined, frozen in time and out of place with the realities of imperial decline, in turn figures in their writings as a repository of unconsummated attachments, contradictory desires, and belated exchanges. Their works arrest the linear progression from colonial to postcolonial, from empire to nation, and from subject to citizen. Drawing on a rich body of scholarship on affect and temporality, Tsang demonstrates how the British empire endures as a structure of desire that outlived its political lifespan. By showing how literary reading sets in motion a tense interplay of intimacy and exclusion, Tsang investigates a unique mode of belonging arising from the predicament of being conscripted into a global empire but not desired as its proper citizen. Ultimately, The Obsolete Empire asks: What does it mean to be inside or outside any given culture? How do large-scale geopolitical changes play out at the level of cultural attachment and political belonging? How does literary reading establish or unsettle narratives of who we are? These questions preoccupied writers across Britain's former empire and continue to resonate today. Dr. Philip Tsang is Assistant Professor at Colorado State University.  Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

New Books in Literary Studies
Philip Tsang, "The Obsolete Empire: Untimely Belonging in Twentieth-Century British Literature" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021)

New Books in Literary Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2022 47:58


Modernist literature at the end of the British empire challenges conventional notions of homeland, heritage, and community.The waning British empire left behind an abundance of material relics and an inventory of feelings not easily relinquished.  In The Obsolete Empire: Untimely Belonging in Twentieth-Century British Literature (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021), Philip Tsang brings together an unusual constellation of writers—Henry James, James Joyce, Doris Lessing, and V. S. Naipaul—to trace an aesthetics of frustrated attachment that emerged in the wake of imperial decline. Caught between an expansive Britishness and an exclusive Englishness, these writers explored what it meant to belong to an empire that did not belong to them.Thanks to their voracious reading of English fiction and poetry in their formative years, all of these writers experienced a richly textured world with which they deeply identified but from which they felt excluded. The literary England they imagined, frozen in time and out of place with the realities of imperial decline, in turn figures in their writings as a repository of unconsummated attachments, contradictory desires, and belated exchanges. Their works arrest the linear progression from colonial to postcolonial, from empire to nation, and from subject to citizen. Drawing on a rich body of scholarship on affect and temporality, Tsang demonstrates how the British empire endures as a structure of desire that outlived its political lifespan. By showing how literary reading sets in motion a tense interplay of intimacy and exclusion, Tsang investigates a unique mode of belonging arising from the predicament of being conscripted into a global empire but not desired as its proper citizen. Ultimately, The Obsolete Empire asks: What does it mean to be inside or outside any given culture? How do large-scale geopolitical changes play out at the level of cultural attachment and political belonging? How does literary reading establish or unsettle narratives of who we are? These questions preoccupied writers across Britain's former empire and continue to resonate today. Dr. Philip Tsang is Assistant Professor at Colorado State University.  Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

New Books Network

William Ghosh talks to Saronik about Realism, and how it can both be subtly conservative and effectively radical, depending on its use. He takes us through realist tactics in texts ranging from V.S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River to Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex. William Ghosh teaches Victorian and Modern literature and Literary Theory at Jesus College, University of Oxford. His first book, V.S. Naipaul, Caribbean Writing, and Caribbean Thought was published by OUP in October 2020. At present he is working on a book on the British writer Penelope Fitzgerald, and on a multimedia project about Caribbean poetry and poetics. Image: ‘Still Life with Corn' by Charles Ethan Porter Music used in promotional material: ‘Made in the City' by Ed Askew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network