Literature strategically served race, gender, and empire representation
Evidence
One of the side-effects of that overall crisis was that Literature was pressed to disclose the strategic complicities whereby it had traditionally represented racesand gendersand empires. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 243
Categorization
- SEED: Ahmad frames the politicizing moment itself as a ‘side-effect’ of war crises rather than a genuine political achievement — the seed of his later complaint that discourse-first critique stayed materially evasive.
- XREF: connects to: Teaching literature historically consolidated British and American imperial power — Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks, 368; Publishing operates a racial economy of recognizable authorship — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 669; Literary prestige is allocated by gendered hierarchy of subject matter — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1047 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Teaching literature historically consolidated British and American imperial power
#exemplifies(0.88) — Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks, 368 - Literary prestige is allocated by gendered hierarchy of subject matter
#expands(0.80) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1047 - Feminist rhetoric can function as a tool of imperial and nationalist agendas
#expands(0.80) - Literature can contest imperial narratives by exposing their ongoing compromises
#contradicts(0.78) - Colonial rivalries were narrated through gendered and sexualized metaphors
#expands(0.78) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 525 - Cross-racial colonial intimacies licensed women’s relative privilege and power
#expands(0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1325 - Publishing operates a racial economy of recognizable authorship
#expands(0.72) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 669