Table Of ContentCompromise and Resistance in Postcolonial Writing
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Compromise and Resistance
in Postcolonial Writing
E. M. Forster’s Legacy
Alberto Fernández Carbajal
University of Leicester, UK
© Alberto Fernández Carbajal 2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-28892-9
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First published 2014 by
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Note on the Publication of Primary Texts xi
Introduction – Liberal, Humanist, Modernist,
Queer? Reclaiming Forster’s Legacies 1
Beyond ‘The Empire Writes Back’ 4
Parody, intertextuality, influence 7
Liberal humanist? 11
Modernist? 16
Manifest and spectral legacies 18
Queer? 21
Negotiating the ‘postcolonial’ 24
1 ‘He is one of your hollow men’: Homosexuality and
Sublimation in Paul Scott’s The Raj Quartet and
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s Heat and Dust 29
Paul Scott’s The Raj Quartet 32
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s Heat and Dust 50
Conclusion 67
2 Shattered Realities, Torn Nations: (Post)Modernism in
J. G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur and Anita Desai’s
Clear Light of Day 70
J. G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur 72
Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day 90
Conclusion 109
3 Of ‘planetary strangers’: Humanism in Nadine
Gordimer’s The Lying Days and Michael Ondaatje’s
The English Patient 112
Nadine Gordimer’s The Lying Days 114
Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient 132
Conclusion 152
4 The Politics of Friendship and Hospitality: Liberalism in
Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and The Moor’s
Last Sigh and in Zadie Smith’s On Beauty 155
Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and
The Moor’s Last Sigh 158
vii
viii Contents
Zadie Smith’s On Beauty 178
Conclusion 196
Conclusion: Towards a Cosmopolitan Humanism 199
Notes 207
Bibliography 224
Index 239
Acknowledgements
My greatest personal and intellectual debt for the writing of this book
is with John McLeod, whose influence on the range and richness of
this study cannot be overstated; I must thank him for the rigour and
generosity with which he chiselled my thinking into shape and for
remaining such a source of support and inspiration after completing
my PhD. For a discipline that has allegedly been dying for the last two
decades, postcolonial studies has plunged me into a vibrant commu-
nity full of friendship, expertise and collegiality; for these, and for their
encouragement over the years, thanks are due to Allison Athens, Clare
Barker, Catherine Bates, Richard Brock, Isabel Carrera Suárez, Anthony
Carrigan, Claire Chambers, Shirley Chew, Pilar Cuder Domínguez,
Natalie Diebschlag, Sam Durrant, Lucy Evans, Corinne Fowler, Luz
Mar González Arias, Dave Gunning, Daisy Hassan, Caroline Herbert,
Reshma Jagernath, Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Sam Knowles, Sarah Lawson,
Milena Marinkova, Donna McCormack, Lindsey Moore, Stuart Murray,
Judie Newman, Brendon Nicholls, Jeffrey Orr, Ecaterina Patrascu, Shital
Pravinchandra, James Procter, Don Randall, Gillian Roberts, Emma
Smith, Neelam Srivastava, Babita Thanoo, Abigail Ward and Alan Ward.
I must thank the School of English at the University of Leeds for the
bursary that enabled my doctoral work in the first instance, out of
which came this project.
The writing of books requires an empty, quiet room, but it needs in
equal measure the cheer of a strong and loyal support network. My
most personal debts lie with my family and friends for bearing the
brunt of both my presence and my absence; most special thanks must
go to my parents Gabriel Fernández and Ana María Carbajal and my
sister Lucía Fernández, to her husband Carlos Alonso and my nephews
Elías and Darío, and to Ángeles Carbajal, Tarsila Fernández, Ana Prado,
Carlos Rico, Graci Díaz, Iván Sánchez, María Glez. Rodríguez, Sara
Álvarez, Claire Armstrong, Sue Baker, Charlotte Baxter, Jo Beerepoot,
Jennifer Blaikie, Ellen Boon, Katherine Bower, Kate Bowker, Victoria,
Paul and Lawrence Browning, Christine Chettle, Cristina Fdez. Rico,
Marta Fdez. Sanjosé, Stuart Forward, Marisa García, Daniel Glez.-Nuevo
Galán, Alberto Gómez, Tracy Hargreaves, Tasha Harrison, Jo Ivie,
Alejandra Lapeña, Javier López Saldaña, Aida Martínez Suárez, Ana
Mongelos, Naiara Muro Uribesalazar, Lucía Pernía, Carlos Pons Guerra,
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