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World Literature for the Wretched of the Earth lays out a novel and provocative argument for an anticolonial mode of reading. Against the usual assumption that entering the scene of world literature entails asserting cultural authority, Daniel Elam shows how anticolonial writers withdraw authority from the singular figure of an author. This aesthetics mines contingency, precariousness and unknowability precisely because it points to a world after colonialism that is not yet in place. Worldly reading, Elam compellingly argues, is not about the formation and cultivation of subjects but the convocation of collectivities for a world to come. Essential reading for those concerned with the future of comparative literature and the world. -- Natalie Melas, Cornell University

World Literature for the Wretched of the Earth lays out a novel and provocative argument for an anticolonial mode of reading. Against the usual assumption that entering the scene of world literature entails asserting cultural authority, Daniel Elam shows how anticolonial writers withdraw authority from the singular figure of an author. This aesthetics mines contingency, precariousness and unknowability precisely because it points to a world after colonialism that is not yet in place. Worldly reading, Elam compellingly argues, is not about the formation and cultivation of subjects but the convocation of collectivities for a world to come. Essential reading for those concerned with the future of comparative literature and the world.--Natalie Melas, Cornell University

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J. Daniel Elam is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong.

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