Relocating consciousness : : diasporic writers and the dynamics of literary experience / / Daphne Grace.

• Superior document: Consciousness, literature & the arts ; 7
• Author: Grace, Daphne, 1954-
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Consciousness, literature & the arts ; 7.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (255 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This book deals directly with issues of consciousness within works of postcolonial and diasporic writers. It discusses fiction, autobiography and theory to re-formulate a “writing of consciousness”, addressing contemporary cultural theory related to a wide range of dynamic writers and ground-breaking novels. A critical analysis of literature contextualises consciousness (understood here as the source of language and human creativity), and explores ways in which consciousness is involved in the creative process. Tackling the controversial nature of consciousness itself, the book argues that consciousness must be understood in its philosophical and social contexts. The idea of relocating consciousness calls for a new aesthetics and ethics of living in the diasporic world where we are all to some extent “migrant”. The book explores notions of consciousness as alternative narrative structures to society, while expanding contemporary postcolonial theory beyond the limited dimension of power-based-on-violence to a more visionary exploration of experience based on consciousness as unity-in-diversity. Themes explored include sacred experience as empowerment; trauma, terror and the impact of consciousness; cosmopolitanism and globalisation; and the literature of human survival. Written in a lively and accessible manner the book will appeal to all readers who enjoy being on the cutting-edge of contemporary world literature.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / Daphne Grace -- Readdressing Consciousness, Locating Diasporas / Daphne Grace -- Exploring Self and Other: Theories of Consciousness / Daphne Grace -- Trauma, Terror and the Impact of Consciousness / Daphne Grace -- Empire, Violence, and the Writing of History / Daphne Grace -- The Self-Reflexive World: Consciousness and Social Responsibility / Daphne Grace -- African Explorations of the Sacred and the Self / Daphne Grace -- The Literature of Human Survival: Envisaging Alternatives / Daphne Grace -- Encounters in the Earthly Paradise: Relocating the Self / Daphne Grace -- Cosmopolitanism, Political Conscience and Higher Consciousness / Daphne Grace -- Bibliography / Daphne Grace -- Index / Daphne Grace.