Imaginary Maps
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Book Overview
Imaginary Maps presents three stories from noted Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi in conjunction with readings of these tales by famed cultural and literary critic, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Weaving history, myth and current political realities, these stories explore troubling motifs in contemporary Indian life through the figures and narratives of indigenous tribes in India. At once delicate and violent, Devi's stories map the experiences of the "tribals" and tribal life under decolonization. In "The Hunt," "Douloti the Bountiful" and the deftly wrought allegory of tribal agony "Pterodactyl, Pirtha, and Puran Sahay," Ms. Devi links the specific fate of tribals in India to that of marginalized peoples everywhere. Gayatri Spivak's readings of these stories connect the necessary "power lines" within them, not only between local and international structures of power (patriarchy, nationalisms, late capitalism), but also to the university.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0415904633
ISBN13:9780415904636
Release Date:September 2019
Publisher:Routledge
Length:248 Pages
Weight:0.82 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"
Age Range:18 years and up
Grade Range:Postsecondary
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Globalism and hidden modern slavery
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
Spivak presents a collection of three of Devi's stories. Devi, a journalist and "organic intellectual" who has focused largely on women's issues and globalization, serves here to detail the intricacies of global capitalism and alienation. Devi's stories are powerful as works of literature, and heartwrenching as stories representative of true-to-life experiences. Spivak's introduction is informative, dense and jargony, but of course integral to an understanding of the works at hand. She pleads the American reader to not "museumify" the writings that she translates, that is not to view them as representative cultural artifacts to be observed and objectified. This is an important ideal to abandon when reading Devi's work because it is representative of so much more than words on a page, more than painstakingly detailed characters. Devi's writing is historically and contextually complex, and deserves acclaim for its purpose rather than its literary characteristics. Accordingly, the language seems bland. Perhaps something was lost in translation, or perhaps this functions to strengthen Devi's ultimate purpose as a writer.
Eye opener!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
This is a powerful exposé of the effects of global capitalism, told in the form of three colorful, sometimes humorous, sometimes painful, highly readable stories. It gives an insider's look at the current realities faced by tribal peoples in India and challenges the privilege of those who look on or look away without committing to making change.
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