A class-bound modernist worldview structurally excludes the daily heroisms of the oppressed.
Evidence
Neither the class from which the Pakistani segment of his experience is derived, nor the ideological ensemble within which he has located his own affiliations, admits, in any fundamental degree, the possibility of heroic action; between the structure of felt experience and the politico-literary affiliation, therefore, the circle is closed. What this excludes- ‘the missing bits’ to which he must ‘reconcile’ himselfis the dailiness of lives lived under oppression, and the human bonding - of resistance, of decency, of innumerable heroisms of both ordinary and extraordinary kindswhich makes it possible for large numbers of people to look each other in the eye, without guilt, with affection and solidarity and humour, and makes life, even under oppression, endurable and frequently joyous. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 548
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘circle is closed’ formation resonates with the strategic-essentialism bind the reader is tracing — affiliation fixes what experience can admit, foreclosing class-transcending solidarity. — connects to: Rushdie’s fiction excludes the everyday resistance that makes oppressed life endurable. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 550; Class origin and ideology jointly determine what a writer’s fiction excludes. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 239
- DEEPTHINKING: Not top-5% material but the ‘structure of felt experience closes the circle with politico-literary affiliation’ point is a genuinely dense causal claim about why essentialist or modernist framing reproduces itself.
Broader Connections
- Rushdie’s fiction excludes the everyday resistance that makes oppressed life endurable.
#exemplifies(0.90) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 550 - Class origin and ideology jointly determine what a writer’s fiction excludes.
#expands(0.85) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 239