Background
Viswanathan, Gauri was born on November 5, 1950 in Calcutta, India. Came to the United States, 1982. Daughter of Television and Subbalakshmi Viswanathan.
(In 19th century India, Viswanathan points out, the Englis...)
In 19th century India, Viswanathan points out, the English literary text functioned as a mirror of the ideal Englishman in his most perfect state. The literature became a mask for economic expoloitation that camouflaged the material activities of the colonizing British government. In effect, the British goal was to create "brown Englishmen" in the service of the state and its mercantile objectives. This intellectually lively argument is covered in full by the author as her story unfolds. Viswanathan shows how the English studies introduced in India under British colonial rule came to be a most effective form of political control and how this abetted voluntary cultural assimilation. The author argues that challenges to the literary canon must take account of the role of Empire in the creation of modern English studies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0571143334/?tag=2022091-20
(A classic work in postcolonial studies, Masks of Conquest...)
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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231171692/?tag=2022091-20
( Outside the Fold is a radical reexamination of religio...)
Outside the Fold is a radical reexamination of religious conversion. Gauri Viswanathan skillfully argues that conversion is an interpretive act that belongs in the realm of cultural criticism. To that end, this work examines key moments in colonial and postcolonial history to show how conversion questions the limitations of secular ideologies, particularly the discourse of rights central to both the British empire and the British nation-state. Implicit in such questioning is an attempt to construct an alternative epistemological and ethical foundation of national community. Viswanathan grounds her study in an examination of two simultaneous and, she asserts, linked events: the legal emancipation of religious minorities in England and the acculturation of colonial subjects to British rule. The author views these two apparently disparate events as part of a common pattern of national consolidation that produced the English state. She seeks to explain why resistance, in both cases, frequently took the form of religious conversion, especially to "minority" or alternative religions. Confronting the general characterization of conversion as assimilative and annihilating of identity, Viswanathan demonstrates that a willful change of religion can be seen instead as an act of opposition. Outside the Fold concludes that, as a form of cultural crossing, conversion comes to represent a vital release into difference. Through the figure of the convert, Viswanathan addresses the vexing question of the role of belief and minority discourse in modern society. She establishes new points of contact between the convert as religious dissenter and as colonial subject. This convergence provides a transcultural perspective not otherwise visible in literary and historical texts. It allows for radically new readings of significant figures as diverse as John Henry Newman, Pandita Ramabai, Annie Besant, and B. R. Ambedkar, as well as close studies of court cases, census reports, and popular English fiction. These varying texts illuminate the means by which discourses of religious identity are produced, contained, or opposed by the languages of law, reason, and classificatory knowledge. Outside the Fold is a challenging, provocative contribution to the multidisciplinary field of cultural studies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691058997/?tag=2022091-20
Viswanathan, Gauri was born on November 5, 1950 in Calcutta, India. Came to the United States, 1982. Daughter of Television and Subbalakshmi Viswanathan.
Bachelor, University Delhi, 1971. Master of Arts, University Delhi, 1973. Doctor of Philosophy, Columbia University, 1985.
Lecturer in English, U. Delhi, Delhi, India, 1978-1985; lecturer in English, Barnard College, New York City, 1985-1986; lecturer in English, Mellon fellow, Columbia University, New York City, 1986-1988; assistant Professor of English, U. Massachusetts, Amherst, 1988-1989; associate Professor of English and comparative literature, Columbia University, New York City, since 1989. Editorial consultant Harper Collins (World Reader), New York City, 1991-1992. Cons.Social Science Research Council (South Asian Humanities Project), New York City, 1991.
(A classic work in postcolonial studies, Masks of Conquest...)
(In nineteenth-century India, Gauri Viswanathan argues, th...)
(In 19th century India, Viswanathan points out, the Englis...)
( Outside the Fold is a radical reexamination of religio...)
(British Studies and Literature, Asian Studies)
Member Modern Language Association (James Russell Lowell prize, Association Asian Studies.