Deterritorialization, Flight and Creation-Contemporary Indian Novels in English as Minor Literature

Abstract

Abstract: Contemporary Indian novels in English came into being in the context of post-coloniality and globalization, thus displaying unique characteristics of minor literature. Through a detailed reading of several contemporary Indian novels in English, this paper elaborates on the three important characteristics of minor literature and shows the ways it conducts minor political practices: through the minor use of language, it deconstructs the power relations constant in language; through continuously deterritorializing the molar assemblages in a society, releasing the inorganic, impersonal desire flow of life, and conducting different kinds of becomings, it continuously creates new life experiences, new forms and possibilities of life; through the engagement in the collective assemblage of enunciation, it creates new identities and peoples. The concept of “minor literature” provides a different perspective from classical post-colonial studies, and can be used to refer to those English literary texts created by writers in ex-colonial countries or plaes. Therefore, it provides a new critical tool for the reading of post-colonial literary texts, as well as resources for the construction of critical discourse which targets exclusively at those literary texts, and contributes to the innovation of the literary creation and critical discourse of the post-colonial English literature.

Key words: minor literature, contemporary Indian novels in English, minor language, minor politics, collective assemblage of enunciation

Yin Jing. Deterritorialization, Flight and Creation-Contemporary Indian Novels in English as Minor Literature[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2017, 39(4): 134-143.

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