About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-10019769800X

ISBN-139780197698006

eBay Product ID (ePID)12064996009

Product Key Features

Number of Pages368 Pages

Publication NamePostcolonial Servitude : Domestic Servants in Global South Asian English Literature

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2024

SubjectAsian / Indic

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism

AuthorAmbreen Hai

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.3 in

Item Weight25.6 Oz

Item Length5.9 in

Item Width8.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2023-056795

Dewey Edition23

Reviews"In this examination of the ubiquitous figure of the domestic servant in South Asian fiction spanning the twentieth and twenty-first century, Hai illuminates the politics and aesthetics of representation with insight, rigor and compassion. This book will forever transform our understanding of the complexities of servitude fiction." -- Deepika Bahri, Professor, English Department, Emory University"Through a series of engaging close readings of texts by a new generation of transnational South Asian writers, Hai identifies a dynamic genre of writing that she labels 'servitude fiction.' Unlike the ubiquitous but marginal figure of the servant in early to late twentieth-century fiction this new genre centers the servant, emphasizes the interiority of the servant, and critiques servitude as a system. Servitude fiction may well pave the way for progressivesocial reform of an institution that has for too long escaped our scrutiny. Hai's book is a welcome, necessary and timely window on this world." -- Gaurav Desai, Professor, Department of English,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor"We have long needed a sensitive account of domestic servitude and its imbrication with the inadequately realized promise of decolonization. Postcolonial Servitude delivers that as well as a theorization of the violent structuring of intimacy in postcolonial life, while it makes a case for the capacity of fiction to reveal the complexities of these social relations at the same time as it performs the ability of criticism to deepen our understanding."-- Sadia Abbas, Associate Professor, English, Rutgers University, Newark"Using theories of "contact" and "who speaks for whom" by Linda Alcoff, Hai presents an intersectional feminist reading of the nuanced relationships between servants and their employers, gender, faith, and age playing into the drama. Hai's statement in her discussion of Rushdie about the "effect of servitude on human relationships, bodies, and psyches" sums up the tenor of this critical volume. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." --Choice, "In this examination of the ubiquitous figure of the domestic servant in South Asian fiction spanning the twentieth and twenty-first century, Hai illuminates the politics and aesthetics of representation with insight, rigor and compassion. This book will forever transform our understanding of the complexities of servitude fiction." -- Deepika Bahri, Professor, English Department, Emory University"Through a series of engaging close readings of texts by a new generation of transnational South Asian writers, Hai identifies a dynamic genre of writing that she labels 'servitude fiction.' Unlike the ubiquitous but marginal figure of the servant in early to late twentieth-century fiction this new genre centers the servant, emphasizes the interiority of the servant, and critiques servitude as a system. Servitude fiction may well pave the way for progressive social reform of an institution that has for too long escaped our scrutiny. Hai's book is a welcome, necessary and timely window on this world." -- Gaurav Desai, Professor, Department of English, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor"We have long needed a sensitive account of domestic servitude and its imbrication with the inadequately realized promise of decolonization. Postcolonial Servitude delivers that as well as a theorization of the violent structuring of intimacy in postcolonial life, while it makes a case for the capacity of fiction to reveal the complexities of these social relations at the same time as it performs the ability of criticism to deepen our understanding." -- Sadia Abbas, Associate Professor, English, Rutgers University, Newark"Using theories of "contact" and "who speaks for whom" by Linda Alcoff, Hai presents an intersectional feminist reading of the nuanced relationships between servants and their employers, gender, faith, and age playing into the drama. Hai's statement in her discussion of Rushdie about the "effect of servitude on human relationships, bodies, and psyches" sums up the tenor of this critical volume. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." -- Choice, "In this examination of the ubiquitous figure of the domestic servant in South Asian fiction spanning the twentieth and twenty-first century, Hai illuminates the politics and aesthetics of representation with insight, rigor and compassion. This book will forever transform our understanding of the complexities of servitude fiction." -- Deepika Bahri, Professor, English Department, Emory University"Through a series of engaging close readings of texts by a new generation of transnational South Asian writers, Hai identifies a dynamic genre of writing that she labels 'servitude fiction.' Unlike the ubiquitous but marginal figure of the servant in early to late twentieth-century fiction this new genre centers the servant, emphasizes the interiority of the servant, and critiques servitude as a system. Servitude fiction may well pave the way for progressive social reform of an institution that has for too long escaped our scrutiny. Hai's book is a welcome, necessary and timely window on this world." -- Gaurav Desai, Professor, Department of English, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor"We have long needed a sensitive account of domestic servitude and its imbrication with the inadequately realized promise of decolonization. Postcolonial Servitude delivers that as well as a theorization of the violent structuring of intimacy in postcolonial life, while it makes a case for the capacity of fiction to reveal the complexities of these social relations at the same time as it performs the ability of criticism to deepen our understanding." -- Sadia Abbas, Associate Professor, English, Rutgers University, Newark

Dewey Decimal820.9954

Table Of ContentA Note on the Cover Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Part One: Chapter One: Constituting (from) the Background: The South Asian Literary Servant in the Margins, or, Early South Asian English Fiction from Below Chapter Two: The Servants' Turn, in the Middle Ground: Rushdie and Transnational Writers After Rushdie Part Two: Chapter Three: Foregrounding the Servant: What's New About Daniyal Mueenuddin's Interlinked Short Stories Chapter Four: From Periphery to Center: The Male Servant as Narrator and Protagonist in Romesh Gunesekera's Reef Chapter Five: In the Driver's Seat? Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger Chapter Six: Sharing Space: Alternating Female Servant-Employer Narratives in Thrity Umrigar's The Space Between Us Chapter Seven: Legacies of Servitude, Global and Local: Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss Conclusion Works Cited Index

SynopsisPostcolonial Servitude explores how a new generation of contemporary global, transnational, award-winning writers with origins in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh engages with the complexities of domestic servitude as a problem for the nation and for the novel. Servitude, to be distinguished from slavery, is a distinctive and pervasive phenomenon in South Asia, with a long history. Unprotected by labor laws, subject to exploitation and dehumanization, members of the lower classes provide essential services to employers whose homes become the servants' workplace. South Asian literature has always featured servants, usually as marginal or instrumental. This book focuses on writers who make servants and servitude central, and craft new narrative forms to achieve their goals. Identifying a blind spot in contemporary postcolonial studies, this is the first full-length study to focus on domestic servants in Anglophone postcolonial or South Asian literature and to examine their political, thematic, and formal significance.Offering fresh readings of well-known early to mid-20th-century writers, this book shows how South Asian English fiction conventionally keeps servants in the background, peripheral but necessary to the constitution of an elite or middle class. It analyses closely the formal strategies, interventions, and modes of representation of five younger writers (Daniyal Mueenuddin, Romesh Gunesekera, Aravind Adiga, Thrity Umrigar, and Kiran Desai), who, it argues, pull servants and servitude into the foreground, humanizing servants as protagonists with agency, complex subjectivities, and stories of their own. Postcolonial Servitude reveals a cultural shift in the twenty-first century postcolonial novel, a new attentiveness, self-implication, and ethics, linked with a new poetics., Postcolonial Servitude explores how a new generation of contemporary global, transnational, award-winning writers with origins in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh engages with the complexities of domestic servitude as a problem for the nation and for the novel. Servitude, to be distinguished from slavery, is a distinctive and pervasive phenomenon in South Asia, with a long history. Unprotected by labor laws, subject to exploitation anddehumanization, members of the lower classes provide essential services to employers whose homes become the servants' workplace. South Asian literature has always featured servants, usually as marginal or instrumental.This book focuses on writers who make servants and servitude central, and craft new narrative forms to achieve their goals. Identifying a blind spot in contemporary postcolonial studies, this is the first full-length study to focus on domestic servants in Anglophone postcolonial or South Asian literature and to examine their political, thematic, and formal significance.Offering fresh readings of well-known early to mid-20th-century writers, this book shows how South AsianEnglish fiction conventionally keeps servants in the background, peripheral but necessary to the constitution of an elite or middle class. It analyses closely the formal strategies, interventions, andmodes of representation of five younger writers (Daniyal Mueenuddin, Romesh Gunesekera, Aravind Adiga, Thrity Umrigar, and Kiran Desai), who, it argues, pull servants and servitude into the foreground, humanizing servants as protagonists with agency, complex subjectivities, and stories of their own. Postcolonial Servitude reveals a cultural shift in the twenty-first century postcolonial novel, a new attentiveness, self-implication, and ethics, linked with a new poetics., Postcolonial Servitude explores how a new generation of contemporary global, transnational, award-winning writers with origins in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh engages with the complexities of domestic servitude as a problem for the nation and for the novel. Servitude, to be distinguished from slavery, is a distinctive and pervasive phenomenon in South Asia, with a long history. Unprotected by labor laws, subject to exploitation and dehumanization, members of the lower classes provide essential services to employers whose homes become the servants' workplace. South Asian literature has always featured servants, usually as marginal or instrumental. This book focuses on writers who make servants and servitude central, and craft new narrative forms to achieve their goals. Identifying a blind spot in contemporary postcolonial studies, this is the first full-length study to focus on domestic servants in Anglophone postcolonial or South Asian literature and to examine their political, thematic, and formal significance. Offering fresh readings of well-known early to mid-20th-century writers, this book shows how South Asian English fiction conventionally keeps servants in the background, peripheral but necessary to the constitution of an elite or middle class. It analyses closely the formal strategies, interventions, and modes of representation of five younger writers (Daniyal Mueenuddin, Romesh Gunesekera, Aravind Adiga, Thrity Umrigar, and Kiran Desai), who, it argues, pull servants and servitude into the foreground, humanizing servants as protagonists with agency, complex subjectivities, and stories of their own. Postcolonial Servitude reveals a cultural shift in the twenty-first century postcolonial novel, a new attentiveness, self-implication, and ethics, linked with a new poetics., Domestic servitude is a widespread phenomenon in countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, where even lower-middle class homes rely on domestic workers (mostly women and children). While social scientists have begun to study this unregulated and exploitative "informal sector," literary critics have not paid attention to servants in South Asian literatures or examined their political or literary significance. Postcolonial Servitude argues that a new generation of writers has begun to rethink this culture of servitude and to devise new forms of writing designed to prompt change in normalized ways of seeing and being. It is the first to offer a sustained exploration of servitude and servants in South Asian English literature, from the early 20th century to the present.

LC Classification NumberPR9570.S64H3 2024