Paradoxes of Postcolonial Culture: Contemporary Women Writers of the Indian and Afro-Italian Diaspora

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State University of New York Press, Feb 1, 2012 - Literary Criticism - 282 pages
This innovative contribution to understanding the promise and contradictions of contemporary postcolonial culture applies a wide array of theoretical tools to a large body of literature. The author compares the work of established Indian writers including Bharati Mukherjee, Meena Alexander, Sara Suleri, and Sunetra Gupta to new writings by such Afro-Italian immigrant women as Ermina dell'Oro, Maria Abbebù Viarengo, Ribka Sibhatu, and Sirad Hassan. Sandra Ponzanesi's analysis highlights a set of dissymmetrical relationships that are set in the context of different imperial, linguistic, and market policies. By dealing with issues of representation linked to postcolonial literary genres, to gender and ethnicity questions, and to new cartographies of diaspora, this book imbues the postcolonial debate with a new élan.
 

Contents

1 Touchstones
1
Bharati Mukherjee Jasmine
31
Meena Alexander Fault Lines
51
Sara Suleri Meatless Days
65
Sunetra Gupta Moonlight into Marzipan
93
From Fascist Propaganda to Postcolonial Representations
105
Métissage and Hyphenated Identities Erminia dellOro and Maria Abbebù Viarengo
143
Ribka Sibhatu Aulò CantoPoesia dallEritrea
167
Once We Were Warriors Sirad S Hassan Sette Gocce di Sangue
185
10 Conclusion
207
Notes
215
Bibliography
235
Index
259
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About the author (2012)

Sandra Ponzanesi is Assistant Professor and Research Fellow of Gender and Postcolonial Studies at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

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