The Ethics of Exile: Colonialism in the Fictions of Charles Brockden Brown and J.M. Coetzee

by Timothy Strode

Overview

The book investigates the problem of how narrative, normally conceived of temporally, encodes its relation to space, especially the territorial space that is the subject of colonial possession and dispossession. The book approaches this problem by, first, providing a theoretical framework derived from the work of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas on the ethical and political implications of human dwelling, and, second, by using this framework to examine cultural forms in two historical periods, colonial America and postcolonial South Africa—the primary interest being the works of Charles Brockden Brown and J. M. Coetzee. This book is unique in its elaboration of a spatial-or more exactly, territorial—conception of narrative form.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415975537
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/22/2005
Series:	Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Timothy F. Strode teaches English at Nassau Community College. He received his Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University.

Table of Contents

Preface Chapter One: Ethics Against Ethos: Emmanuel Levinas's Critique of Heideggerian Dwelling Chapter Two: Edgar Huntly and Colonial Discourse: Toward a Poetics of Territoriality Chapter Three: The Ends of Edgar Huntly : Colonialism, Ethics, Ethics and the Problem of Closure Chapter Four: South Africa and Urban Segregation: Toward a Poetics of Exile Chapter Five: Dwelling in the Fiction of J.M. Coetzee: A Postcolonial Poetics of Exile Notes Index