/

Criminality and Power in the Postcolonial City Mapping the Mean Streets of Mumbai and Naples

Ridda Maria
Innbundet / 2022 / Engelsk

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781138303874
Publisert
2022-11-21
Utgiver
Vendor
Routledge
Vekt
453 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
240

Forfatter
Ridda Maria

Om bidragsyterne

Maria Ridda is Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature and Director of the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kent. She specialises in contemporary South Asian writing, Mediterranean studies, and the intersection between the idea of Europe and Empire today. She is the author of Imagining Bombay, London, New York and Beyond: South Asian Writing from 1990 to the Present (2015), and has published widely in journals such as Interventions, Postcolonial Studies, and Postcolonial Text. She is the co-editor of ‘Decolonising the State’ (Laursen et al., 2020).

Criminality and Power in the Postcolonial City Mapping the Mean Streets of Mumbai and Naples

Ridda Maria
Innbundet / 2022 / Engelsk
Ridda Maria
Innbundet / 2022 / Engelsk
Nettpris:
1.754,-
Levering 7-20 dager
Sjekk lagerstatus i butikk
This book investigates the literary imaginings of the postcolonial city through the lens of crime in texts set in Naples and Mumbai from the 1990s to the present. Employing the analogy of a ‘black hole,’ it posits the discourse on criminality as a way to investigate the contemporary spatial manifestations of coloniality and global capitalist urbanity. Despite their different histories, Mumbai and Naples have remarkable similarities. Both are port cities, ‘gateways’ to their countries and regional trade networks, and both are marked by extreme wealth and poverty. They are also the sites and symbolic battlegrounds for a wider struggle in which ‘the North exploits the South, and the South fights back.’ As one of the characters of the novel The Neapolitan Book of the Dead puts it, a narrativisation of the underworld allows for a ‘discovery of a different city from its forgotten corners.’ Crime provides a means to understand the relationship between space and society/culture in a number of cities across the Global South, by tracing a narrative of postcolonial urbanity that exposes the connections between exploitation and the ongoing ‘coloniality of power.’
Les mer
Employing the literary imaginings of the postcolonial city in texts set in Naples and Mumbai from the 1990s to the present, this book posits the discourse on criminality as a way to investigate the contemporary spatial manifestations of coloniality and global capitalist urbanity.
Les mer
ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Naples and the Siren’s Children Chapter 2: Bombay, Colonialism, and Western Urban Modernity Chapter 3: Mumbai and Naples: The Dramatic Encounter of Land and Sea Chapter 4: Outsourcing, Truth, and Invisibility Chapter 5: Mafia Queens, Spectacles, and SpectresConclusion: Can Urban Theory be Formulated from Mumbai and Naples ?Bibliography Index
Les mer
This book offers a fascinating and illuminating comparison of Naples and Mumbai. In its readings of postcolonial texts ‘through criminal eyes’, this study encourages an important rethinking of the relationship between crime, postcolonialism and the urban environment.-Susheila Nasta, Founding Editor of Wasafiri and Professor Emerita at Queen Mary College, University of London, UK.Juxtaposing fictional works representing the criminal worlds of Mumbai and Naples, Maria Ridda argues convincingly that contemporary discourses of crime both expose the hidden truth of extractive capitalism and are essential to understanding postcolonialism. Developing Marx’s insight that criminal laws are intrinsic to capitalist development, and Gramsci’s critique of how the ‘South’ is subjugated through mechanisms of consent, Ridda deftly combines literary analysis, historical contextualisation, and urban theory to open up exciting new avenues for Postcolonial Studies.-David Johnson, Professor of Literature, The Open University, UKMetropolitan peripheries and the disdained souths of the world now overlap and intersect, becoming central to contemporary political and criminal power. The critical studies in this book are elegant testimony to the ethical and aesthetic implications of the violent and seemingly implacable processes of criminality.-Iain Chambers, Professor of Cultural and Postcolonial Studies, University of Naples "L'Orientale"
Les mer

Relaterte produkter

This book investigates the literary imaginings of the postcolonial city through the lens of crime in texts set in Naples and Mumbai from the 1990s to the present. Employing the analogy of a ‘black hole,’ it posits the discourse on criminality as a way to investigate the contemporary spatial manifestations of coloniality and global capitalist urbanity. Despite their different histories, Mumbai and Naples have remarkable similarities. Both are port cities, ‘gateways’ to their countries and regional trade networks, and both are marked by extreme wealth and poverty. They are also the sites and symbolic battlegrounds for a wider struggle in which ‘the North exploits the South, and the South fights back.’ As one of the characters of the novel The Neapolitan Book of the Dead puts it, a narrativisation of the underworld allows for a ‘discovery of a different city from its forgotten corners.’ Crime provides a means to understand the relationship between space and society/culture in a number of cities across the Global South, by tracing a narrative of postcolonial urbanity that exposes the connections between exploitation and the ongoing ‘coloniality of power.’
Les mer
Employing the literary imaginings of the postcolonial city in texts set in Naples and Mumbai from the 1990s to the present, this book posits the discourse on criminality as a way to investigate the contemporary spatial manifestations of coloniality and global capitalist urbanity.
Les mer
ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Naples and the Siren’s Children Chapter 2: Bombay, Colonialism, and Western Urban Modernity Chapter 3: Mumbai and Naples: The Dramatic Encounter of Land and Sea Chapter 4: Outsourcing, Truth, and Invisibility Chapter 5: Mafia Queens, Spectacles, and SpectresConclusion: Can Urban Theory be Formulated from Mumbai and Naples ?Bibliography Index
Les mer
This book offers a fascinating and illuminating comparison of Naples and Mumbai. In its readings of postcolonial texts ‘through criminal eyes’, this study encourages an important rethinking of the relationship between crime, postcolonialism and the urban environment.-Susheila Nasta, Founding Editor of Wasafiri and Professor Emerita at Queen Mary College, University of London, UK.Juxtaposing fictional works representing the criminal worlds of Mumbai and Naples, Maria Ridda argues convincingly that contemporary discourses of crime both expose the hidden truth of extractive capitalism and are essential to understanding postcolonialism. Developing Marx’s insight that criminal laws are intrinsic to capitalist development, and Gramsci’s critique of how the ‘South’ is subjugated through mechanisms of consent, Ridda deftly combines literary analysis, historical contextualisation, and urban theory to open up exciting new avenues for Postcolonial Studies.-David Johnson, Professor of Literature, The Open University, UKMetropolitan peripheries and the disdained souths of the world now overlap and intersect, becoming central to contemporary political and criminal power. The critical studies in this book are elegant testimony to the ethical and aesthetic implications of the violent and seemingly implacable processes of criminality.-Iain Chambers, Professor of Cultural and Postcolonial Studies, University of Naples "L'Orientale"
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781138303874
Publisert
2022-11-21
Utgiver
Vendor
Routledge
Vekt
453 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
240

Forfatter
Ridda Maria

Om bidragsyterne

Maria Ridda is Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature and Director of the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kent. She specialises in contemporary South Asian writing, Mediterranean studies, and the intersection between the idea of Europe and Empire today. She is the author of Imagining Bombay, London, New York and Beyond: South Asian Writing from 1990 to the Present (2015), and has published widely in journals such as Interventions, Postcolonial Studies, and Postcolonial Text. She is the co-editor of ‘Decolonising the State’ (Laursen et al., 2020).

Relaterte produkter