Utopian Generations: The Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature (Translation Transnation)

248 Pages·2005·0.57 MB·English

by  Nicholas Brown

Utopian Generations
T R A N S L A T I O N ⎪ T R A N S N A T I O N
EDITED BY EMILY APTER
WritingOutsidetheNation
BYAZADESEYHAN
TheLiteraryChannel:TheInter-NationalInventionoftheNovel
EDITEDBYMARGARETCOHENANDCAROLYNDEVER
AmbassadorsofCulture:TheTransamericanOriginsofLatinoWriting
BYKIRSTENSILVAGRUESZ
ExperimentalNations:Or,theInventionoftheMaghreb
BYRE´DABENSMA¨IA
WhatIsWorldLiterature?
BYDAVIDDAMROSCH
ThePortableBunyan:ATransnationalHistoryofThePilgrim’sProgress
BYISABELHOFMEYR
WethePeopleofEurope?ReflectionsonTransnationalCitizenship
BYE´TIENNEBALIBAR
Nation,Language,andtheEthicsofTranslation
EDITEDBYSANDRABERMANNANDMICHAELWOOD
UtopianGenerations:ThePoliticalHorizon
ofTwentieth-CenturyLiterature
BYNICHOLASBROWN
GuruEnglish:SouthAsianReligioninCosmopolitanContexts
BYSRINIVASARAVAMUDAN
Utopian Generations:
THE POLITICAL HORIZON
OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY LITERATURE
NICHOLAS BROWN
P R I N C E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
P R I N C E T O N A N D O X F O R D
Copyright©2005byPrincetonUniversityPress
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LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Brown,Nicholas,1971–
Utopiangenerations:thepoliticalhorizonoftwentieth-centuryliterature/NicholasBrown.
p. cm.—(Translation/transnation)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-691-12211-3(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN0-691-12212-1(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Englishliterature—20thcentury—Historyandcriticism.2.Politicsandliterature—GreatBritain—
History—20thcentury.3.Politicsandliterature—Africa—History—20thcentury.4.African
literature—20thcentury—Historyandcriticism.5.Literature,Comparative—EnglishandAfrican.
6.Literature,Comparative—AfricanandEnglish.7.Modernism(Literature)—GreatBritain.
8.Modernism(Literature)—Africa.9.Politicsinliterature.10.Utopiasinliterature.I.Title.IISeries.
PR478.P64B762006
820.9′358—dc22 2005043926
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ThisbookhasbeencomposedinMinionandGillSans
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FORNORMA
I N M E M O R I A M
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C O N T E N T S
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION 1
ModernismandAfricanliterature—Indefenseoftotality—The
eidaestheticitinerary—Themodernistsublime—TheAfricanprise
deparole—Alltheoryispostcolonialtheory—Totality,allegory,
andhistory—Utopiangenerations
PARTONE:SUBJECTIVITY 35
CHAPTERTWO
Ulysses:TheModernistSublime 37
Ulysses,history,andform—Ulyssesandthemodernistsublime—
“Eumaeus”:thesublimityofthebanalandthebanalityofthesublime—
“Ithaca”:thebecoming-meaningofinformationandthebecoming-
informationofmeaning
CHAPTERTHREE
AmbiguousAdventure:Authenticity’sAftermath 59
AmbiguousAdventureandModernism—AmbiguousAdventure,authenti-
city,anddeath—Heideggerasethnophilosopher—Tempels’sBantuand
Heidegger’sGreeks—Reificationandtheworkofthecolonized—The
privatizationofutopia
PARTTWO:HISTORY 81
CHAPTERFOUR
TheGoodSoldierandParade’sEnd:AbsoluteNostalgia 83
WhyFordMadoxFord’snovelscanonlybereadonce—Conrad,Ford,
andliteraryimpressionism—TheGoodSoldier:absolutenostalgia—
Parade’sEnd:absoluteandconventionalnostalgia
CHAPTERFIVE
ArrowofGod:TheTotalizingGaze 104
TheAchebe-event—AchebeandtheimageofAfrica—Yeats,Eliot,and
Achebe:thepoeticsofdisaster—ArrowofGodasgeneralallegory—The
imageofAfricarevisited—ArrowofGodastotalallegory
viii
CONTENTS
PARTTHREE:POLITICS 125
CHAPTERSIX
TheChildermass:RevolutionandReaction 127
WyndhamLewis,fascism,andthecritiqueofliberalism—The
Childermassandrevolution:theembodiedcliche´—TheChildermass
andreaction:imperialismandthestrongpersonality—Thereaction
inrevolutionandtherevolutioninreaction
CHAPTERSEVEN
NgugiwaThiong’oandPepetela:RevolutionandRetrenchment 150
TheTrialofDedanKimathiandtheambivalenceofMauMau—
Kamiriithu,theKenyantheaterapparatus,andtheneocolonialstate—
AGera¸ca˜odaUtopia,IWillMarryWhenIWant,andnational
tragedy—Anewgenerationofutopia:themultitudeandmusicalform
CHAPTEREIGHT
Conclusion:PostmodernismasSemiperipheralSymptom 173
Theeidaestheticitinerarycontinued—bossapo´sbossa—Theaesthetic
ideologyofbossanova—Fouroptionsforculturalproductiononthe
semiperiphery—1964andtheendofmodernism—Tropica´lia,orbread
andcircuses?
NOTES 201
INDEX 231
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
Special thanks for their more than generous guidance and support are due to
MichaelHardt, FredJameson, FrankLentricchia, andValentinMudimbe; Jamie
Daniel, Madhu Dubey, Judy Gardiner, John Huntington, Lansine Kaba, Walter
Michaels, BethRichie, and Mary BethRose; Maria Elisa Cevasco;Ndinzi Masa-
gara,MarjoriePerloff,andSylviaWynter;AlbertoMoreiras;NeilLarsenandAto
Quayson;andthelatePriscillaLane.ThroughoutthewritingofthisbookIhave
benefitedgreatlyfrommyconversationswithKristinBergen,TimChoy,Jeremy
Hermann, and Imre Szeman. The comments of those, known to me or anony-
mous, who read the manuscript and offered advice were invaluable in putting
this book into its final form—which would not have been possible without the
helpofKatMcLellan,MaryMurrell,LindaVavra,andHanneWinarsky.Myincal-
culabledebtstoAnnaandtoLisandSteveandNoraarealmostbeyondmention;
notsomydebttoEleazarDelgadoandthestaffattheJumpingBean,whonever
kicked me off my table by the window. Parts of this book are printed with the
permission of Research in African Literatures, the New Centennial Review, and
SouthAtlanticQuarterly.ThisbookwascompletedattheInstitutefortheHuman-
itiesattheUniversityofIllinoisatChicago.