Jasbir Jain

Theorising Resistance: Narratives in History and Politics Jasbir Jain

Theorising Resistance: Narratives in History and Politics is a collection of essays thematically and logically connected by their focus on the discourse of resistance in language and literature. Looking at the Indian creative process and at comparative literature from such countries as Britain and Turkey, these essays interpret and trace the subterranean connections between individual behavior and national histories, between past and present, and the abstract ideals of freedom and harmony, with a strong commitment to the perspectives from the global South. Resistance, in itself, is both a moral and an intellectual pursuit, integral alike to the evolution of ideas and to the essence of art. It also happens to be a stance constantly challenged by authoritarian and hegemonic structures, often resulting in censorship, exile, persecution, and even silence. Vesting its faith in its own courage of conviction and a sense of integrity, intellectual dissent sets itself the task of awakening the conscience of a community. Some of the questions addressed are the ways that a writer, both as a witness and an interrogator, works with myth and language, and contests the injustice of the times. Theorising Resistance seeks an interpretation of these and other related questions.