Post-imperial Literature: Translatio Imperii in Kafka and Coetzee

Vladimir Biti

Published by De Gruyter 2021

Post-imperial Literature

Translatio Imperii in Kafka and Coetzee

Vladimir Biti

Volume 20 in the series Culture & Conflict

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110732245

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book proposes a new departure point for the investigation of transnational literary alliances: the traumatic constellation of translatio imperii, which followed the dissolution of the East-Central European empires in the 1920s and the crumbling of the West European colonial empires in the 1950s. To prevent their breakdown, the former transitioned from a ‘sovereign’ to a ‘disciplinary’ mode of administration of their peripheries, the latter from the merciless assimilation of their colonial constituencies to their affirmative regeneration. This book treats Franz Kafka as the writer of the first transition, prefiguring J. M. Coetzee as the writer of the second. In a series of close readings, it investigates the particular ways in which the restructuring of power relations between the agencies in their fictions is a response to the delineated post-imperial reconfiguration of the new countries’ governmental techniques. By displacing their narrative authority beyond the reach of their readers, they laid bare the sudden withdrawal of transcendental guarantees from the world of human commonality. This entailed an unstable and elusive configuration of their fictional worlds as a key feature of post-imperial literature.

Author / Editor information

Vladimir Biti, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgments Vladimir Biti Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Introduction Translatio imperii as the generator of post-imperial literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Post-imperial Europe: The Revenge of Peripheries
1. Post-imperial Europe: The Return of the Indistinct Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
2. Translating the Untranslatable: Walter Benjamin and Homi Bhabha Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
3. The Ethical Appeal of the Indifferent: Maurice Blanchot and Michel Foucault Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Part II: Franz Kafka and the Performance of Sacrifice
4. Unleashed Contingency? The Deterritorialization of Reality in The Trial Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
5. State of Exception: The Birthplace of Kafka’s Narrative Authority Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
6. Almost the Same but not Quite: Kafka and His ‘Assignees’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
7. Positional Outsiders and the Performance of Sacrifice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Part III: J. M. Coetzee and the Politics of Deterritorialization
8. The Withheld Self-revelation: The ‘Real’ and Realities in Waiting for the Barbarians Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
9. Conscience on the Pillar of Shame: The Grace of the Graceless in Disgrace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
10. From Lectures to Lessons and Back Again: The Deterritorialization of Transmission in Elizabeth Costello Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Appendix
Deprived of Protection: The Ethico-Politics of Authorship in Ian McEwan’s Atonement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars of German-Jewish studies, English studies, European studies, post-imperial studies, postcolonial studies
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 268
Keywords: Translatio imperii; narrative authority; deterritorialization; self-exemption

eBook

Published: November 8, 2021
ISBN: 9783110732245

Hardcover

Published: November 8, 2021
ISBN: 9783110737288

Paperback

Planned Publication: June 17, 2024
ISBN: 9783111539737