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Death of a Discipline (review)

Death of a Discipline (review) KEVIEWS sign of an originary postcoloniality, one that nonetheless hints early on at the inadequacy ofessentialist distinctions between colonized/colonizer. The final chapter of the book, "'Reason,' 'The Native,' and 'Desire: A Theory of "Magical Realism,'"" diagnoses the practice of naming certain texts with the term of Magical Realism as "a colonial fantasy," arising from the desire ofWestern intelligentsia to capture otherness. This desire is, ofcourse, thwarted by the same texts that purport to offer access to this otherness. López concentrates on two texts in particular, Gabriel García Márquez's Cien Años de Soledad, and Salman Rushdie's Midnight 's Children to scavenge those moments when the texts subvert, and (ironically) fulfil, any expectations of Western readers. The book concludes with a recapitulation ofits main points, especially the idea that the postcolonial not only hints at a present but foresees an inevitable future marked by subjectivities which inhabit cultural spaces not easily essentialized. One is left in awe at the erudition that went into this handy volume, but what wins the day in the end is Lopez's sagacious close readings in support ofhis case, recapturing for us the activity of reading as the vaccine against the ready-made category. After we put http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Comparatist University of North Carolina Press

Death of a Discipline (review)

López, Alfred J.
The Comparatist , Volume 28 (1) – Oct 3, 2004
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Comparative Literature Association.
ISSN
1559-0887
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Abstract

KEVIEWS sign of an originary postcoloniality, one that nonetheless hints early on at the inadequacy ofessentialist distinctions between colonized/colonizer. The final chapter of the book, "'Reason,' 'The Native,' and 'Desire: A Theory of "Magical Realism,'"" diagnoses the practice of naming certain texts with the term of Magical Realism as "a colonial fantasy," arising from the desire ofWestern intelligentsia to capture otherness. This desire is, ofcourse, thwarted by the same texts that purport to offer access to this otherness. López concentrates on two texts in particular, Gabriel García Márquez's Cien Años de Soledad, and Salman Rushdie's Midnight 's Children to scavenge those moments when the texts subvert, and (ironically) fulfil, any expectations of Western readers. The book concludes with a recapitulation ofits main points, especially the idea that the postcolonial not only hints at a present but foresees an inevitable future marked by subjectivities which inhabit cultural spaces not easily essentialized. One is left in awe at the erudition that went into this handy volume, but what wins the day in the end is Lopez's sagacious close readings in support ofhis case, recapturing for us the activity of reading as the vaccine against the ready-made category. After we put

Journal

The Comparatist – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Oct 3, 2004

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