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Natalie Melas - All the Difference in the World: Postcoloniality and the Ends of Comparison - 9780804731980 - V9780804731980
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All the Difference in the World: Postcoloniality and the Ends of Comparison

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Description for All the Difference in the World: Postcoloniality and the Ends of Comparison Paperback. Talks about culture and comparison. This book inquires into the idea of comparison in a postcolonial world. It argues that inclusiveness is not a sufficient response to postcolonial and multiculturalist challenges because it leaves the basis of equivalence unquestioned. Series: Cultural Memory in the Present. Num Pages: 304 pages. BIC Classification: DSA; DSB. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 5817 x 3887 x 17. Weight in Grams: 413.
This book is about culture and comparison. Starting with the history of the discipline of comparative literature and its forgotten relation to the positivist comparative method, it inquires into the idea of comparison in a postcolonial world. Comparison was Eurocentric by exclusion when it applied only to European literature, and Eurocentric by discrimination when it adapted evolutionary models to place European literature at the forefront of human development. This book argues that inclusiveness is not a sufficient response to postcolonial and multiculturalist challenges because it leaves the basis of equivalence unquestioned. The point is not simply to bring more objects under comparison, but rather to examine the process of comparison. The book offers a new approach to the either/or of relativism and universalism, in which comparison is either impossible or assimilatory, by focusing instead on various forms of incommensurability -comparisons in which there is a ground for comparison but no basis for equivalence. Each chapter develops a particular form of such cultural comparison from readings of important novelists (Joseph Conrad, Simone Schwartz-Bart), poets (Aime Cesaire, Derek Walcott), and theorists (Edouard Glissant, Jean-Luc Nancy).

Product Details

Publisher
Stanford University Press
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2006
Series
Cultural Memory in the Present
Condition
New
Weight
413g
Number of Pages
301
Place of Publication
Palo Alto, United States
ISBN
9780804731980
SKU
V9780804731980
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50

About Natalie Melas
Natalie Melas is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University.

Reviews for All the Difference in the World: Postcoloniality and the Ends of Comparison
This is a subtle, intelligent book, illuminating in the insights it brings to the work of individual authors. -The Modern Language Review All the Difference in the World is an outstanding and rigorous work that reflects on the concept of comparison itself and on the history of the field of comparative literature. In her philosophically-grounded readings of the problematics of time and narrative, history and identity, trauma, and geography, Melas offers exquisitely detailed arguments that yield illuminating insights on Conrad, Walcott, Cesaire, and Simone Schwarz-Bart. An innovative and rewarding book.-Francoise Lionnet, University of California, Los Angeles Melas displays a thorough familiarity with the pertinent body of established contemporary theory, and her treatment of the critical corpus is unusual in its historical scope and sophistication. All the Difference in the World is an outstanding contribution to postcolonial critical studies.
Gregson Davis, Dean of Humanities and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities In this innovative study, Melas analyzes the impact postcolonial writing has had on one discipline, comparative literature.
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Goodreads reviews for All the Difference in the World: Postcoloniality and the Ends of Comparison


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