World Literature and the Problem of Postcolonialism: Aesthetics and Dissent

Burns, Lorna

Book Section

Lorna Burns

World Literature and the Problem of Postcolonialism

Aesthetics and Dissent

In: The Work of World Literature, ed. by Francesco Giusti and Benjamin Lewis Robinson, Cultural Inquiry, 19 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2021), pp. 57–74

Open Access

This essay identifies in the materialist strand of world literature theory, especially Pascale Casanova and the Warwick Research Collective, a reliance upon a priori structures (the world-system) and prioritisation of the literary registration of inequality. By contrast, I contend, world-literary critics who wish to maintain the dissident spirit of postcolonialism ought to demonstrate a shared equality. By reference to the philosophies of Bruno Latour, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Rancière, this essay sets out the case for an alternative to world-systems critique: one that maintains literature’s potential for creating new forms of resistance, dissent, and, crucially, equality.

Part of The Work of World Literature Containing:
The Work of World Literature / Francesco Giusti, Benjamin Lewis Robinson
Untranslatability and the Challenge of World Literature / Derek Attridge
World Literature and the Problem of Postcolonialism
Transcontextual Gestures / Francesco Giusti
The World after Fiction / Benjamin Lewis Robinson
Extracting Indigeneity / Rashmi Varma
Being Taught Something World-Sized / Dirk Wiemann
Working Conditions / Jarad Zimbler
Afterword / Emily Apter

Title	World Literature and the Problem of Postcolonialism
Subtitle	Aesthetics and Dissent
Author(s)	Lorna Burns
Identifier	https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-19_03
DOI Target	https://press.ici-berlin.org/doi/10.37050/ci-19/burns_postcolonialism.html
HTML Page	https://press.ici-berlin.org/doi/10.37050/ci-19/burns_postcolonialism.html
Description	This essay identifies in the materialist strand of world literature theory, especially Pascale Casanova and the Warwick Research Collective, a reliance upon a priori structures (the world-system) and prioritisation of the literary registration of inequality. By contrast, I contend, world-literary critics who wish to maintain the dissident spirit of postcolonialism ought to demonstrate a shared equality. By reference to the philosophies of Bruno Latour, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Rancière, this essay sets out the case for an alternative to world-systems critique: one that maintains literature’s potential for creating new forms of resistance, dissent, and, crucially, equality.
Is Part Of	The Work of World Literature
Place	Berlin
Publisher	ICI Berlin Press
Date	2021
Subject	world literature postcolonialism Bruno Latour Jacques Rancière Warwick Research Collective Pascale Casanova dissent equality
Rights	© by the author(s) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Harvested	yes
Language	en-GB
short title	Postcolonialism
page start	57
page end	74
Source	The Work of World Literature, ed. by Francesco Giusti and Benjamin Lewis Robinson, Cultural Inquiry, 19 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2021), pp. 57–74
Bibliographic Citation	Lorna Burns, ‘World Literature and the Problem of Postcolonialism: Aesthetics and Dissent’, in The Work of World Literature, ed. by Francesco Giusti and Benjamin Lewis Robinson, Cultural Inquiry, 19 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2021), pp. 57–74 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-19_03>
Format	application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf