Description
Book SynopsisCan a subject be sovereign in a hegemony? Can creativity be reined in by forces of empire? Studying closely the oral narrations and writings of four Indian authors in colonial India, The Audacious Raconteur argues that even the most hegemonic circumstances cannot suppress audacious raconteurs: skilled storytellers who fashion narrative spaces that allow themselves to remain sovereign and beyond subjugation.
By drawing attention to the vigorous orality, maverick use of photography, literary ventriloquism, and bilingualism in the narratives of these raconteurs, Leela Prasad shows how the ideological bulwark of colonialismformed by concepts of colonial modernity, history, science, and native knowledgeis dismantled. Audacious raconteurs wrest back meanings of religion, culture, and history that are closer to their lived understandings. The figure of the audacious raconteur does not only hover in an archive but suffuses everyday life. Underlying these ideas, Prasad''
Trade Review
[A] charming retelling of Hanuman's visit to Lanka[...] her insightful studies of her four subjects at times suggest to me a more complex and equivocal relationship with colonial ideology and its hegemonic language.
* Journal of the American Oriental Society *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: "That Acre of Ground"
1. The Ruse of Colonial Modernity: Anna Liberata de Souza
2. The History of the English Empire as a Fall: P. V. Ramaswami Raju
3. The Subjective Scientific Method: M. N. Venkataswami
4. The Irony of the "Native Scholar": S. M. Natesa Sastri
Conclusion: The Sovereign Self
