Overview

A classic work in postcolonial studies, Masks of Conquest describes the introduction of English studies in India under British rule and illuminates the discipline's transcontinental movements and derivations, showing that the origins of English studies are as diverse and diffuse as its future shape. In her new preface, Gauri Viswanathan argues forcefully that the curricular study of English can no longer be understood innocently of or inattentively to the imperial contexts in which the discipline first articulated its mission.

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Reviews

The great merit of Viswanathan's closely argued and admirably researched book is to show that the exigencies of managing an empire played a far more important role than has hitherto been recognized in the emergence of the discipline as a social practice. * History of European Ideas * Brilliantly working out in local detail a conception of literary education as a 'strategy of containment,' Masks of Conquest adds significantly both to the history of English education in relation to literary representation, and to the ongoing critical revaluation of the role of 'Literature' in modern culture. * Papers in Language and Literature *

The great merit of Viswanathan's closely argued and admirably researched book is to show that the exigencies of managing an empire played a far more important role than has hitherto been recognized in the emergence of the discipline as a social practice. History of European Ideas Brilliantly working out in local detail a conception of literary education as a 'strategy of containment,' Masks of Conquest adds significantly both to the history of English education in relation to literary representation, and to the ongoing critical revaluation of the role of 'Literature' in modern culture. Papers in Language and Literature

This brilliantly argued work, which is both first-class history and first-class theory, is an important book for the general reader as well as for humanists, educators, and policymakers. -- Choice A thought-provoking statement on the relations between culture and power. -- Indian Literature Fascinating.... Viswanathan pursues [this thesis] with verve, insight, and a thorough grounding in nineteenth century and modern sources. -- Victorian Studies A compelling account of the relationship between power and culture and an indictment of the exploitative tendencies of ruling class interests. -- Modern Fiction Studies A remarkable feat of interpretation for the unity of its argument and the unification of the extensive evidence on which the argument is based. -- Journal of Asian and African Studies

Author Information

Gauri Viswanathan is Class of 1933 Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. She is also the author of Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity, and Belief, which won the Harry Levin Prize awarded by the American Comparative Literature Association, the James Russell Lowell Prize awarded by the Modern Language Association of America, and the Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Prize awarded by the Association for Asian Studies. She coedits the series South Asia Across the Disciplines, published jointly by the university presses of Columbia, Chicago, and California.

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