History and Myth: Postcolonial Dimensions

This anthology, 'History and Myth: Postcolonial Dimensions', seeks to interrogate and dismantle the colonially structured symmetrical interpretations of the histories and mythological narratives of the former European colonies through depolarization, pluriversality, and border thinking. Here, the concepts of history and myth have been addressed from different perspectives and spatiotemporal zones by scholars from different parts of the world, which add to the global value of the book.

It has been argued in this volume that the understanding of postcolonial histories and myths in the contemporary era is highly influenced by the colonially fashioned binaries: valid/ invalid, civilized/barbaric, inclusive/exclusive, relevant/irrelevant, good/bad, etc., which continue to preserve the epistemic citadels of coloniality and selectively promote such historical and mythological narratives that celebrate the superiority of the Global North and the inferiority of the Global South. This book will be of particular interest to scholars, researchers, teachers, and those interested in understanding history, postcolonial studies, decolonial studies, cultural studies, literature, and sociology.

Preface

Foreword
Diana J. Fox
Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts

Introduction - Decolonization and its Discontents: Democratization, Demarcations, Dangers
Waseem Anwar
Forman Christian College, Lahore

Part I Postcolonialism and/ in Texts: Histories and Myths

Chapter 1 Material Development and Human Regression: A Decolonial Reading of Orijit Sen’s River of Stories
Diptarup Ghosh Dastidar
Amity University, Raipur

Chapter 2 A Tale of Things: Decoloniality of Memory in Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence
Chand Basha M
Department of Studies and Research in English, VSK
University, Bellary

Chapter 3 Post-9/11, Cultural Amnesia and Representation(s) of Islamophobia in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced
Abhisek Ghosal
Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Chapter 4 Ancient Stories, Current Praxes: Decolonial Myths in Contemporary Literature
Feroza Jussawalla
Professor Emerita of English, University of New Mexico

Part II Decoloniality: Experiences and Engagements

Chapter 5 White as Paper, Black as Ink: Bilali Muhammad and the Transdisciplinary Imperative
Adam Short
Soccer Coach, Richmond, Virginia

Chapter 6 Beyond Western Eyes: Theorizing Feminism in the Indian Context
Chandrakala Padia
Professor, Department of Political Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

Chapter 7 The Reconstruction of the Myth of Hindutva and the Great Indian Patriarchy
Guni Vats
Research Scholar, Department of English, University of Lucknow

Contributors

Index

Arti Nirmal (Ph.D.) is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the Banaras Hindu University, India. She has authored a book 'Shifting Homes and Transnational Identities: Women Novelists of the Indian Subcontinental Diaspora' (2015) and co-edited a volume titled 'Legal Research and Methodology: Perspectives, Process and Practice' (2019), besides publishing research articles in reputed journals and anthologies. She has delivered talks at various universities and academic institutions and presented more than fifty research papers in national and international conferences in India and abroad. She has guided doctoral dissertations on decolonial studies and gender discourse. She is also a regular speaker at the National Broadcasting Agency, Prasar Bharati, Government of India. Her forthcoming book is 'Myth and History in Postcolonial Consciousness: Theory, Praxis, and Politics' (ed.), Routledge. Her academic interests are in diaspora and migration studies, postcolonial and decolonial studies, law and literature, gender studies, and peace studies.

Sayan Dey grew up in Kolkata, West Bengal and is currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, University of Witwatersrand. He is also the Senior Advisor of the Quality Education Program, Center for Regional Research and Sustainability Studies, India. His research interests are in the areas of postcolonial studies, decolonial studies, race studies, food humanities, and critical diversity literacy.

Ambivalence, transnational, Islamophobic, black liberation, urban adventurism, mythoscope, historiography, cultural space, material development, human regression, graphic novel, Mexican myths, decolonial imagination, Hispanic heritage, social media, layered methodology, post-truth politics, communication systems, Yoruba Movies, homogenous, patriarchy, democracy, ontological justice, children’s rights, global development, secular, nationalism, syncretism, colonial myths, decolonial project, cognitive understanding, herstorical, feminist higher education