Eli Park Sorensen – författare

As the scholarly world attunes itself once again to the specifically political, this book rethinks the political significance of literary realism within a postcolonial context. Generally, postcolonial studies has either ignored realism or criticized it as being naïve, anachronistic, deceptive, or complicit with colonial discourse; in other words—incongruous with the postcolonial. This book argues that postcolonial realism is intimately connected to the specifically political in the sense that realist form is premised on the idea of a collective reality. Discussing a range of literary and theoretical works, Dr. Sorensen exemplifies that many postcolonial writers were often faced with the realities of an unstable state, a divided community inhabiting a contested social space, the challenges of constructing a notion of ‘the people,’ often out of a myriad of local communities with different traditions and languages brought together arbitrarily through colonization. The book demonstrates that the political context of realism is the sphere or possibility of civil war, divided societies, and unstable communities. Postcolonial realism is prompted by disturbing political circumstances, and it gestures toward a commonly imagined world, precisely because such a notion is under pressure or absent.

As the scholarly world attunes itself once again to the specifically political, this book rethinks the political significance of literary realism within a postcolonial context. Generally, postcolonial studies has either ignored realism or criticized it as being naïve, anachronistic, deceptive, or complicit with colonial discourse; in other words—incongruous with the postcolonial. This book argues that postcolonial realism is intimately connected to the specifically political in the sense that realist form is premised on the idea of a collective reality. Discussing a range of literary and theoretical works, Dr. Sorensen exemplifies that many postcolonial writers were often faced with the realities of an unstable state, a divided community inhabiting a contested social space, the challenges of constructing a notion of ‘the people,’ often out of a myriad of local communities with different traditions and languages brought together arbitrarily through colonization. The book demonstrates that the political context of realism is the sphere or possibility of civil war, divided societies, and unstable communities. Postcolonial realism is prompted by disturbing political circumstances, and it gestures toward a commonly imagined world, precisely because such a notion is under pressure or absent.

World Literature: Approaches, Practices, and Pedagogy combines theoretical explorations and pedagogy to explore approaches to teaching some of the key concepts, issues, and topics in world literary studies.Recognising the evolving, and at times contested, meanings of ‘world literature,’ this book treats world literature as a mode of reading and one that provides opportunities to create a space for critical discussions and reflections on understanding, unpacking, and at times, challenging, some of the assumptions and practices in world literary studies. Contributors discuss a wide array of topics, including the role of translation and literary marketplace in global circulation of texts, the function and problematics of paratexts, questions of co-authorship in transnational contexts, debates on major/minor in world literature, cosmopolitanism, and the impact of English as a lingua franca on the development of the field.Accompanied by reading questions, individual and group exercises, as well as suggested further readings, this collection offers a practical resource for instructors and an accessible guide to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students taking world literature courses in different parts of the world.

World Literature: Approaches, Practices, and Pedagogy combines theoretical explorations and pedagogy to explore approaches to teaching some of the key concepts, issues, and topics in world literary studies.Recognising the evolving, and at times contested, meanings of ‘world literature,’ this book treats world literature as a mode of reading and one that provides opportunities to create a space for critical discussions and reflections on understanding, unpacking, and at times, challenging, some of the assumptions and practices in world literary studies. Contributors discuss a wide array of topics, including the role of translation and literary marketplace in global circulation of texts, the function and problematics of paratexts, questions of co-authorship in transnational contexts, debates on major/minor in world literature, cosmopolitanism, and the impact of English as a lingua franca on the development of the field.Accompanied by reading questions, individual and group exercises, as well as suggested further readings, this collection offers a practical resource for instructors and an accessible guide to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students taking world literature courses in different parts of the world.

Opening a debate about the political dimension of science fiction films, this book uses Carl Schmitt's thought to provide a new theoretical approach to American cinematic sci-fi since the late 1970s. Drawing on Schmitt's notion of the state of exception and its basis in the unpredictability of tomorrow, it looks at the political ramifications when the moment of the future finally arrives. With analysis of films such as Alien, Blade Runner and Minority Report, Eli Park Sorensen explores how power reconfigures itself to ensure the survival of the state, what 'society' means, who 'we, the people' are, and whether it will still be possible to retain a sphere of liberal, individual rights after the transformative event of the future.

Provides an innovative theoretical approach to sci-fi films from the late 1970s to the presentHighlights the specifically political dimension of sci-fi works and demonstrates how they speak directly to current political sentiments, thus providing a new theoretical framework for understanding certain sci-fi filmsOffers the first full-length sci-fi study that engages with the thought of Carl SchmittReinforces the relevance of recent sci-fi films as a critical cultural perspective on today's political climateProvides a rethinking of Darko Suvin's classic concept of the novum through a political perspectiveBy presenting a new political framework, the book looks at the sci-fi film genre's important critical role in a post-political world, deepening and elucidating our understanding of the post-political present and hence reopening the political imagination to possible future trajectories beyond the horizon of the present.Opening a debate about the political dimension of science fiction films, this book uses Carl Schmitt's thought to provide a new theoretical approach to American cinematic sci-fi since the late 1970s. Drawing on Schmitt's notion of the state of exception and its basis in the unpredictability of tomorrow, it looks at the political ramifications when the moment of the future finally arrives.With analysis of films such as Alien, Blade Runner and Minority Report, Eli Park Sorensen explores how power reconfigures itself to ensure the survival of the state, what 'society' means, who 'we, the people' are, and whether it will still be possible to retain a sphere of liberal, individual rights after the transformative event of the future.