Metaphors of Invention and Dissension: Aesthetics and Politics in the Postcolonial Algerian Novel

Author:   Rajeshwari S. Vallury
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN:  

9781786603173


Pages:   282
Publication Date:   14 February 2019
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Metaphors of Invention and Dissension: Aesthetics and Politics in the Postcolonial Algerian Novel


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Overview

Metaphors of Invention and Dissension explores the relationship between aesthetics and politics in the postcolonial Algerian novel, examining six novels written by two Algerian authors of French expression, Tahar Djaout and Rachid Mimouni. Rajeshwari S. Vallury argues that postcolonial literature demonstrates a conscious, rational, and deliberate engagement with the question of democracy. The author demonstrates how the metaphors of literature invent an arena or platform for the enactment of democratic dissension. Postcolonial texts stage contentious debates about the principles that can and must sustain a life of the common. The capacity of the poetic word to regenerate and recreate forms of thinking, being, saying, and doing lies at the heart of the political power of literature. In the case of Algeria, the dual forces of military rule and radical Islamism have not succeeded in stifling the revolutionary will of the people, which continues to find self-expression in the idea of the nation, the concept of universal human rights, the notion of civility, and the philosophical traditions of pluralism and toleration within Islam. This book demonstrates how postcolonial literature attests to the dissonance of democracy by staging the nation as the space of a universal equality and civility.

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Author:   Rajeshwari S. Vallury
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Rowman & Littlefield International
Dimensions:   Width: 15.10cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 22.20cm
Weight:   0.431kg
ISBN:  

9781786603173


ISBN 10:   1786603179
Pages:   282
Publication Date:   14 February 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

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Reviews

""Vallury offers an engaging study of works by authors Rachid Mimouni and Tahar Djaout. She effectively demonstrates that these writers of French expression use allegory and metaphor to recast the Algerian nation as a utopic space that allows for democratic dissension and political subversion. She defines literary metaphors as sources of poetic valence that enable debates in political justice and equality. These debates continue to be relevant in the contentious sociopolitical arenas of present-day Algeria."" --Valerie Orlando, Professor, French and Francophone Literatures and Cultures, University of Maryland


Author Information

Rajeshwari S. Vallury is Professor of French at the University of New Mexico. She is the author of ‘Surfacing’ the Politics of Desire: Literature, Feminism, and Myth (2008), and the editor of Filiations: Theory, Aesthetics, and Politics in the Francophone World (forthcoming).

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