The Colonial Rise of the Novel [Hardcover]

In this challening book, Firdous Azim, provides a feminist critique of orthodox accounts of the `rise of the novel' and exposes the underlying orientalist assumptions of the early English novel. Whereas previous studies have emphasized the universality of the coherent and consistent subject which found expression in the novels of the eighteenth century, Azim demonstrtes how certain categories: women and people of colour, were silenced and excluded. The Colonial Rise of the Novel makes an important and provocative contribution to post-colonial and feminist criticism. It will be essential reading for all teachers and students of English literature, women's studies, and post-colonial criticism.Presents a major challenge to our current understanding of the history of Western literature, in the first feminist and anti-imperialist account of the development of the novel.Acknowledgements, List of abbreviations, Introduction, 1 THE SUBJECT/S OF THE NOVEL, 2 SLAVERY AND SEXUALITY IN OROONOKO, 3 DANGEROUS IDENTITY, 4 CHARLOTTE BRONT?/CURRER BELL, 5 THE BRONT? CHILDREN AT PLAY, 6 THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN THE PROFESSOR, 7 REREADING FEMINISMS TEXTS, LANGUAGE, SUBJECTIVITY AND LITERATURE: An afterword, Notes, Bibliography, IndexUS? 1993 Firdous Azim