Combined and Uneven Development: Towards a New Theory of World-Literature Postcolonialism across the Disciplines 17 Postcolonialism across the Disciplines Series Editors Graham Huggan, University of Leeds Andrew Thompson, University of Exeter Postcolonialism across the Disciplines showcases alternative directions for postcolonial studies. It is in part an attempt to counteract the dominance in colonial and postcolonial studies of one particular discipline - English literary/ cultural studies - and to make the case for a combination of disciplinary knowledges as the basis for contemporary postcolonial critique. Edited by leading scholars, the series aims to be a seminal contribution to the field, spanning the traditional range of disciplines represented in postcolonial studies but also those less acknowledged. It will also embrace new critical paradigms and examine the relationship between the transnational/cultural, the global and the postcolonial. , c '7::>! Combined and Uneven Development TO\IVards a NeW' Theory of World-Literature WReC· (Warwick Research Collective) cp ~xit,*-~~.tg 111111111111·11111111111111111111111111111111111111111Il B00956984 Liverpool University Press Warwick Research Collective: Sharae Oeckard Nicholas Lawrence Neil Lazarus Graeme Macdonald Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee Benita Parry Stephen Shapiro First published 2015 by Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool L69 7ZU Copyright © 2015 Sharae Deckard, Nicholas Lawrence, Neil Lazarus, Graeme Macdonald, Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, Benita Parry and Stephen Shapiro The right of Sharae Deckard, Nicholas Lawrence, Neil Lazarus, Graeme Macdonald, Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, Benita Parry and Stephen Shapiro to be identified as the authors of this book has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. AIl rights reserved. No part ofthis book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data A British Library CIP record is available ISBN 978-1-78138-189-2 cased ISBN 978-1-78138-191-5 limp Typeset in Amerigo by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster Printed and bound by BooksFactory.co.uk The periphery is where the future reveals itself. - J.G. Ballard j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j Contents A Note on Collaborat.ive Method ix 1 World-Literature in the Context of Combined and Uneven Development 1 2 The Question of Peripheral Realism 49 3 'Irrealism' in Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North 81 4 Oboroten Spectres: Lycanthropy, Neoliberalism and New Russia in Victor Pelevin 96 5 The European Literary Periphery 115 6 Ivan Vladislavic: Traversing the Uneven City 143 Works Cited 168 Index 188 vii A Note on Collaborative Method This book is the product of intensive discussion and debate. Although our individual specialisms vary widely, from postcolonial studies to American studies to modern European and Scottish literary studies, we are motivated by a common conviction that the existing paradigms of literary analysis, in whatever field, are not equal to the challenge of theorising 'world literature' in the new millennium. With a linked history of co-teaching as our departure point, alongside the co-organising of reading groups, conferences and symposia, we approached the task ofwriting from a basis not simply of shared theoretical interests and determination but of already extensive conversation on the central problems, as we saw them, of our respective sub-fields and of the emerging field of world-literary studies. That said, the process of collaboration sho~ld never be mistaken for the harmonious reconciliation of differences. Several of our disagreements and divergent emphases are sedimented in this work, and our applications of its proposaIs continue to evolve in different ways. At the sa me time, and especially in the face of an increasingly hostile environment for critical studies ofthis kind, we have benefited enormously from the mutual attention, support and unstinting engagement that cornes with collective endeavour. Individual members of the collective drafted sections of the book after its main arguments were established in draft form. These were then edited, revised and rewritten in a multi-phase process by several hands. The result could indeed be termed combined and unequal - but in ways that perhaps highlight, rather than negate, the values of solidarity on which the work is premised. IX j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j