Tropicopolitans

Colonialism and Agency, 1688–1804

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British
Cover of the book Tropicopolitans by Srinivas Aravamudan, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Srinivas Aravamudan ISBN: 9780822377764
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: May 17, 1999
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Srinivas Aravamudan
ISBN: 9780822377764
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: May 17, 1999
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

In Tropicopolitans Srinivas Aravamudan reconstructs the colonial imagination of the eighteenth century. By exploring representations of peoples and cultures subjected to colonial discourse, he makes a case for the agency—or the capacity to resist domination—of those oppressed. Aravamudan’s analysis of texts that accompanied European commercial and imperial expansion from the Glorious Revolution through the French Revolution reveals the development of anticolonial consciousness prior to the nineteenth century.
“Tropicalization” is the central metaphor of this analysis, a term that incorporates both the construction of various dynamic tropes by which the colonized are viewed and the site of the study, primarily the tropics. Tropicopolitans, then, are those people who bear and resist the representations of colonialist discourse. In readings that expose new relationships between literary representation and colonialism in the eighteenth century, Aravamudan considers such texts as Behn’s Oroonoko, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Captain Singleton, Addison’s Cato, and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and The Drapier’s Letters. He extends his argument to include analyses of Johnson’s Rasselas, Beckford’s Vathek, Montagu’s travel letters, Equiano’s autobiography, Burke’s political and aesthetic writings, and Abbé de Raynal’s Histoire des deux Indes. Offering a radical approach to literary history, this study provides new mechanisms for understanding the development of anticolonial agency.
Introducing eighteenth-century studies to a postcolonial hermeneutics, Tropicopolitans will interest scholars engaged in postcolonial studies, eighteenth-century literature, and literary theory.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Tropicopolitans Srinivas Aravamudan reconstructs the colonial imagination of the eighteenth century. By exploring representations of peoples and cultures subjected to colonial discourse, he makes a case for the agency—or the capacity to resist domination—of those oppressed. Aravamudan’s analysis of texts that accompanied European commercial and imperial expansion from the Glorious Revolution through the French Revolution reveals the development of anticolonial consciousness prior to the nineteenth century.
“Tropicalization” is the central metaphor of this analysis, a term that incorporates both the construction of various dynamic tropes by which the colonized are viewed and the site of the study, primarily the tropics. Tropicopolitans, then, are those people who bear and resist the representations of colonialist discourse. In readings that expose new relationships between literary representation and colonialism in the eighteenth century, Aravamudan considers such texts as Behn’s Oroonoko, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Captain Singleton, Addison’s Cato, and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and The Drapier’s Letters. He extends his argument to include analyses of Johnson’s Rasselas, Beckford’s Vathek, Montagu’s travel letters, Equiano’s autobiography, Burke’s political and aesthetic writings, and Abbé de Raynal’s Histoire des deux Indes. Offering a radical approach to literary history, this study provides new mechanisms for understanding the development of anticolonial agency.
Introducing eighteenth-century studies to a postcolonial hermeneutics, Tropicopolitans will interest scholars engaged in postcolonial studies, eighteenth-century literature, and literary theory.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book A Nervous State by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Lion Songs by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Tissue Economies by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Living for the Revolution by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book How to Be an Intellectual in the Age of TV by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Sovereignty in Ruins by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Cultures in Orbit by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Europe's Indians by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Aloha America by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Soul Covers by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Working Like a Homosexual by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book The Becoming of Time by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book All in the Family by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book The Weather in Proust by Srinivas Aravamudan
Cover of the book Chinese Reportage by Srinivas Aravamudan
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy