Gauri Viswanathan's Books

Masks of Conquest

Literary Study and British Rule in India

By: Gauri Viswanathan

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Masks of Conquest

Literary Study and British Rule in India

By: Gauri Viswanathan

A classic work in postcolonial studies, Masks of Conquest describes the introduction of English studies in India under British rule and its function as an effective form of political control abetting voluntary cultural assimilation. Gauri Viswanathan demonstrates how the literary text functioned as a mirror of the ideal Englishman and became a mask of exploitation that camouflaged the material activities of the colonizing British government. In her new preface, she argues that the curricular study of English can no longer be understood innocently or inattentively to the deeper contexts of imperialism, transnationalism, and globalization in which the discipline first articulated its mission. Masks of Conquest illuminates the transcontinental movements and derivations of English studies, revealing the disciplineÕs origins are as diffuse as its future shape.

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Page Count

242

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231171692

ISBN 13

9780231171694

Outside the Fold

Conversion, Modernity, and Belief

By: Gauri Viswanathan

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Outside the Fold

Conversion, Modernity, and Belief

By: Gauri Viswanathan

Outside the Fold is a radical reexamination of religious conversion. Gauri Viswanathan skillfully argues that conversion is an interpretive act that belongs in the realm of cultural criticism. To that end, this work examines key moments in colonial and postcolonial history to show how conversion questions the limitations of secular ideologies, particularly the discourse of rights central to both the British empire and the British nation-state. Implicit in such questioning is an attempt to construct an alternative epistemological and ethical foundation of national community. Viswanathan grounds her study in an examination of two simultaneous and, she asserts, linked events: the legal emancipation of religious minorities in England and the acculturation of colonial subjects to British rule. The author views these two apparently disparate events as part of a common pattern of national consolidation that produced the English state. She seeks to explain why resistance, in both cases, frequently took the form of religious conversion, especially to "minority" or alternative religions. Confronting the general characterization of conversion as assimilative and annihilating of identity, Viswanathan demonstrates that a willful change of religion can be seen instead as an act of opposition. Outside the Fold concludes that, as a form of cultural crossing, conversion comes to represent a vital release into difference. Through the figure of the convert, Viswanathan addresses the vexing question of the role of belief and minority discourse in modern society. She establishes new points of contact between the convert as religious dissenter and as colonial subject. This convergence provides a transcultural perspective not otherwise visible in literary and historical texts. It allows for radically new readings of significant figures as diverse as John Henry Newman, Pandita Ramabai, Annie Besant, and B. R. Ambedkar, as well as close studies of court cases, census reports, and popular English fiction. These varying texts illuminate the means by which discourses of religious identity are produced, contained, or opposed by the languages of law, reason, and classificatory knowledge. Outside the Fold is a challenging, provocative contribution to the multidisciplinary field of cultural studies.

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Page Count

353

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400843480

ISBN 13

9781400843480

Masks of Conquest

Literary Study and British Rule in India

By: Gauri Viswanathan

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Masks of Conquest

Literary Study and British Rule in India

By: Gauri Viswanathan

A classic work in postcolonial studies, Masks of Conquest describes the introduction of English studies in India under British rule and illuminates the discipline's transcontinental movements and derivations, showing that the origins of English studies are as diverse and diffuse as its future shape. In her new preface, Gauri Viswanathan argues forcefully that the curricular study of English can no longer be understood innocently of or inattentively to the imperial contexts in which the discipline first articulated its mission.

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

241

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231539576

ISBN 13

9780231539579

Outside the Fold

Conversion, Modernity, and Belief

By: Gauri Viswanathan

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Outside the Fold

Conversion, Modernity, and Belief

By: Gauri Viswanathan

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

353

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400843480

ISBN 13

9781400843480

Book's by Gauri Viswanathan

Masks of Conquest

Masks of Conquest

Outside the Fold

Outside the Fold

Masks of Conquest

Masks of Conquest

Outside the Fold

Outside the Fold

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