Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

English

Advisor

Tanya Agathocleous

Committee Members

Peter Hitchcock

Siraj Ahmed

Subject Categories

Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America

Keywords

climate change, novel, queer, South Asia

Abstract

As the world sours on the history-ending narratives of forever “growth” and unending “development” and recognizes the climate catastrophe, what stories of the future are left? The question of postcolonial space and its representation is a central concern of this dissertation. Thinking beyond the reasons for, and the histories of, the trashing of postcolonial space, examined by thinkers such as Rob Nixon and Jennifer Wenzel, allows for a consideration of the possibilities of life and thriving in unexpected and supposedly untenable contexts. I will therefore focus on what might be considered deterritorialised spaces: that is, spaces outside the structural ambits as well as surveillance of the state. Whether unregistered shanties or the graveyard, these spaces considered untenable for the making of a good life allow for new stories and possibilities of world-making to occur. Looking most closely at the novels Animal’s People (2007), Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017), and Gun Island (2019) that have been accused of attempting a dizzying scope—of failing according to realist measures of novelistic coherence—this dissertation stresses the need for narratives and imaginations that convey a frantic and uncertain rather than calming and rational view of the spaces from which they were created. Relatedly, it stresses the value of socio-cultural networks such as Youtube, social media and encrypted chat apps to these imaginations and the ways they necessarily weave in and out of literary narratives.

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