Interrogating Interstices: Gothic Aesthetics in Postcolonial Asian and Asian American Literature

ISBN-13: 9783039110063 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 289 str.

Andrew Hock Soon Ng

Opis

This study attempts to multiculturalise the Gothic by reading a wide selection of Postcolonial Asian and Asian American narratives in light of familiar Gothic tropes such as the uncanny, the double, spectres, and the sublime. Discussing some of the more important concepts in postcolonialism such as subjectivity, belonging, hybridity and nationalism, the author argues that the trajectory of the postcolonial and diasporic experience is fraught with profound moments of trauma, loss and transgression which the aesthetics of the Gothic can illuminate. Throughout the study, a careful balance is maintained between deploying Gothic criticism and emphasising the narrative s cultural, historical and ideological specificity to ensure that a textual form of colonial imposition does not occur. Writings by well-known authors such as Rushdie, Roy, Ondaatje and Mukherjee, and lesser known ones such as Lan Samantha Chang, K.S, Maniam and Beth Yahp are analysed."

Spis treści

Contents: The Aesthetics of the Gothic in Postcolonial Asian and Asian American Literature - Nationalism, the Gothic and Belonging - Split Selves, Racial Doubles - Haunted Women - The Postcolonial Sublime: Violence, Ethics, Friendship - Gothic Redemption: Cryptomimesis in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.

O autorze

The Author: Andrew Hock Soon Ng teaches film studies and literature at Monash University, Malaysia. His first book, Dimensions of Monstrosity in Contemporary Narratives was published in 2004. He has also contributed critical essays to journals such as Women's Studies, Mosaic, and South East Asian Review of English.