Utopian Generations: The Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature : the Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature

Resource Information

The work Utopian Generations: The Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature : the Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in San Francisco Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Utopian Generations: The Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature : the Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature

Title remainder

the Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature

Statement of responsibility

Nicholas Brown

Creator

• Brown, Nicholas

Contributor

• hoopla digital

Author

• Brown, Nicholas

Subject

• Comparative literature -- English and African
• Criticism -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
• Electronic books
• English literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism
• Littérature africaine -- 20e siècle | Histoire et critique
• Littérature anglaise -- 20e siècle | Histoire et critique
• Littérature comparée -- Africaine et anglaise
• Littérature comparée -- Anglaise et africaine
• Modernism (Literature) -- Africa
• Modernism (Literature) -- Great Britain
• Modernisme (Littérature) -- Afrique
• Modernisme (Littérature) -- Grande-Bretagne
• Politics and literature -- Africa -- History -- 20th century
• Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century
• Politique et littérature -- Afrique | Histoire | 20e siècle
• African literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism
• Social sciences -- Ethnic Studies | African American Studies
• Politique et littérature -- Grande-Bretagne | Histoire | 20e siècle
• Comparative literature -- African and English

Genre

• 20e siècle
• African and English
• Afrique
• Anglaise et africaine
• English and African
• English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
• Ethnic Studies
• Grande-Bretagne
• Histoire
• Histoire et critique
• African American Studies
• Africaine et anglaise

Language

eng

Summary

Utopian Generations develops a powerful interpretive matrix for understanding world literature--one that renders modernism and postcolonial African literature comprehensible in a single framework, within which neither will ever look the same. African literature has commonly been seen as representationally naïve vis-à-vis modernism, and canonical modernism as reactionary vis-à-vis postcolonial literature. What brings these two bodies of work together, argues Nicholas Brown, is their disposition toward Utopia or "the horizon of a radical reconfiguration of social relations.? Grounded in a profound rethinking of the Hegelian Marxist tradition, this fluently written book takes as its point of departure the partial displacement during the twentieth century of capitalism's "internal limit" (classically conceived as the conflict between labor and capital) onto a geographic division of labor and wealth. Dispensing with whole genres of commonplace contemporary pieties, Brown examines works from both sides of this division to create a dialectical mapping of different modes of Utopian aesthetic practice. The theory of world literature developed in the introduction grounds the subtle and powerful readings at the heart of the book--focusing on works by James Joyce, Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Ford Madox Ford, Chinua Achebe, Wyndham Lewis, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Pepetela. A final chapter, arguing that this literary dialectic has reached a point of exhaustion, suggests that a radically reconceived notion of musical practice may be required to discern the Utopian desire immanent in the products of contemporary culture

Cataloging source

Midwest

Dewey number

• 820.9/358
• 820.9/358

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Series statement

Translation/Transnation

Target audience

adult