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Secularism and the Crisis of Minority Identity in Postcolonial Literature

(Hardback)


Publishing Details

Full Title:

Secularism and the Crisis of Minority Identity in Postcolonial Literature

Contributors:

By (Author) Roger McNamara

ISBN:

9781498548939

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Imprint:

Lexington Books

Publication Date:

6th June 2018

Country:

United States

Classifications

Readership:

Professional and Scholarly

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Other Subjects:

Humanist and secular alternatives to religion

Dewey:

809.93358

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Hardback

Number of Pages:

198

Dimensions:

Width 159mm, Height 231mm, Spine 21mm

Weight:

476g

Description

Secularism and the Crisis of Minority Identity in Postcolonial Literature examines how writers from religious and ethnic minority communities (Anglo-Indians, Burghers, Dalits, Muslims, and Parsis) in India and Sri Lanka engage secularism through novels, short stories, and autobiographies. Given the rise of Hindu nationalism in India and Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka, it would seem obvious that minorities would rally around secularism (the separation of church and state). However, this book argues that the relationship between minorities and secularism is extremely ambivalent. On the one hand, it shows how writers belonging to oppressed communities can deploy secularism as a mode of critique (secular criticism) to challenge the ideologies of dominant groupsthe nation, upper-castes, and religious hierarchies. On the other hand, it examines how these writers reveal that other aspects of secularism (secularization and secular time) are responsible for creating essentialized identities that have not only exacerbated relationships between majorities and minorities and between minority groups, but have also created tension within minority groups themselves. Turing to aesthetics and religious faith, these writers attempt to undermine secular social and cultural structures that are responsible for this crisis of minority identity.

Reviews

This book makes a significant contribution to the study of how writers from minority groups such as the Burghers in Sri Lanka and the Muslims, Parsis, Anglo-Indians and Dalits in India engaged secularism. -- Maryse Jayasuriya, University of Texas at El Paso

Author Bio

Roger McNamara is assistant professor of English at Texas Tech University.

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