Poetics/Politics: Radical Aesthetics for the Classroom

by Amitava Kumar (Editor)

On the contested terrain of cultural studies, the debate has often focused on the blurring of the line between the poetic and the political. The future of the academic profession, the move toward a return to literary readings, and the function/usefulness of art and poetry today are all tied up in this issue. The real need, however, is to complicate the argument between the two, and this volume addresses that need by using the classroom as the specific site for that critical practice. The essays in this volume attempt to ask why the poetic and the political seem at odds in today's society, literature, and current events. The contributors do not so much instantiate the hitherto hidden relation between politics and aesthetics, but instead provide occasions to reexamine and complicate the relationship between them.

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Amitava Kumar is a novelist, poet, journalist, and Professor of English at Vassar College. He was born in Bihar, India; he grew up in the town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty, and delicious mangoes.

He is the author of Nobody Does the Right Thing; A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb; Husband of a Fanatic: A Personal Journey through India, Pakistan, Love, and Hate, a New York Times “Editors’ Choice” selection; Bombay—London—New York, a New Statesman (UK) “Book of the Year” selection; and Passport Photos. He is the editor of several books, including Away: The Indian Writer as an Expatriate, The Humour and the Pity: Essays on V. S. Naipaul, and World Bank Literature. He is also an editor of the online journal Politics and Culture and the screenwriter and narrator of the prize-winning documentary film Pure Chutney.

Kumar’s writing has appeared in The Nation, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, The American Prospect, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Hindu, and other publications in North America and India.

Reviews

[Sarah]

Poetics/Politics: Radical Aesthetics for the Classroom (1999)