MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 04815cam a22003974a 4500
001 4911193
005 20221109195859.0
008 040621t20042004pau b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2003023400
020 $a0838755852 (alk. paper)
024 $aR1-442296
035 $a(OCoLC)53369962
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm53369962
035 $a(DLC) 2003023400
035 $a(NNC)4911193
035 $a4911193
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dDLC$dOrLoB-B
042 $apcc
043 $af-mz---
050 00 $aPQ9939.C68$bZ86 2004
082 00 $a869.3/42$222
100 1 $aRothwell, Phillip,$d1972-$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2003043246
245 12 $aA postmodern nationalist :$btruth, orality, and gender in the work of Mia Couto /$cPhillip Rothwell.
260 $aLewisburg :$bBucknell University Press,$c[2004], ©2004.
300 $a210 pages ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 185-200) and index.
505 00 $g1.$tIntroduction : a postmodern nationalist -- $g2.$tLi(v)es, li(v)es, li(v)es : the link between truth and death in Mia Couto -- $g3.$tRighting wrongs for writing rongas : the politics of literacy and orthography -- $g4.$tDe-scribing the text : orality's infiltration of the written source -- $g5.$tSeaing into the unconscious : the role of water in Mia Couto -- $g6.$tPlaying gam(et)es with gender : subverting orthodoxy through sexual confusion -- $g7.$tFinding the nation's phallus : expelling the UN specter from Mozambique -- $tConclusion : reaching postcolonial maturity?
520 1 $a"This is the first book in the English language devoted to the study of the work of Mozambique's leading contemporary author, Mia Couto. Couto's fiction is riddled by a central paradox - it forges a distinct postmodern national identity for a country historically plagued by repeated and detrimental interference from abroad. Phillip Rothwell argues that Couto is a writer who eschews and reinforces the national frontier. In fact, Couto produces a cultural phenomenon that is markedly Mozambican by corrupting aspects of the European legacy Portugal left on the African continent, fusing this distortion with a corrupted version of African heritage, and demarcating literary boundaries through fluidity." "The book details Couto's life and literary trajectory, and interprets essential aspects of Mozambican political and cultural history before undertaking a range of analyses of his work. The postmodern relativization of the concept of a unitary truth furnishes the springboard for an interrogation of what "truth" has meant to Mozambique as exemplified in Couto's texts. The paradoxes inherent in the politics of orthography are scrutinized in Couto's universe to illustrate the aporia prevalent in an atavistic reclaiming of a pre-Portuguese system of writing. Rothwell then engages with the moral meaning of orality and literacy in the tradition Couto both defies and defines, to demonstrate Couto's simultaneous disavowal of misographic and graphophile epistemologies. The manners in which Couto breaches the frontier between the conscious and unconscious realms and blurs gender distinctions are read alongside traditional delineations in order to understand the extent to which Couto's message is radically political. Rothwell concludes with a reading of one of Couto's most potent works in which, through an empowering attack on the United Nations' invasion of Mozambique, Couto enjoins his fellow nationals to begin to resist the postmodern age." "Couto's ambivalent use of the tropes of postmodernism are discussed throughout the book, particularly the way in which it has evolved into a political agenda that is fiercely Mozambican. Rothwell demonstrates Couto's reevaluation of Grand Narratives and shows how, in the case of the Mozambican culture of today, postmodernism has become the only Grand Narrative left worth critiquing." "Rothwell explores a broad cross-section of Couto's literary output, from his early short stories to his more recent novels. He places these within the context of a Mozambican and wider lusophone cultural backdrop, providing essential reading and source of reference for all interested in contemporary Portuguese, African, and world literatures."--BOOK JACKET.
600 10 $aCouto, Mia,$d1955-$xCriticism and interpretation.
600 10 $aCouto, Mia,$d1955-$xPolitical and social views.
651 0 $aMozambique$xHistory$yRevolution, 1964-1975.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh86001500
651 0 $aMozambique$xHistory$yIndependence and Civil War, 1975-1994.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85088193
856 41 $3Table of contents$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0410/2003023400.html
852 00 $bglx$hPQ9939.C68$iZ86 2004