Abstract
This article analyzes the politics of prefaces and introductions written for colonial and postcolonial novels about India. Using Gérard Genette's concept of the paratext, I compare the preface written by E. M. Forster for Mulk Raj Anand to recent introductions written by postcolonial writers like Pankaj Mishra, Edward W. Said, and Harish Trivedi. I argue that their introductions to Raj-era novels like Forster's A Passage to India and Rudyard Kipling's Kim perform a crucial service to contemporary readers but also echo the politics of patronage implied by earlier endorsements by white writers of early Anglophone Indian novels.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 337-355 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | South Asian Review |
Volume | 40 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2019 |
Scopus Subject Areas
- Gender Studies
- Cultural Studies
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
- Literature and Literary Theory
Keywords
- Forster
- India
- Kipling
- Pankaj Mishra
- Paratexts
- Raj