The non-literate other : readings of illiteracy in twentieth-century novels in English / / Helga Ramsey-Kurz.

• Superior document: Costerus, new ser., v. 171
• Author: Ramsey-Kurz, Helga.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Series: Costerus ; new ser., v. 171.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (517 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Public debates on the benefits and dangers of mass literacy prompted nineteenth-century British authors to write about illiteracy. Since the early twentieth century writers outside Europe have paid increasing attention to the subject as a measure both of cultural dependence and independence. So far...

Table of Contents

• Preliminary Material
• INTRODUCTION
• ILLITERACY AS A THEORETICAL ANATHEMA
• IN THE HUMANITIES: TABOOED
• IN LITERARY STUDIES: IGNORED
• ILLITERACY AS A LITERARY THEME
• ILLITERACY IN EARLIER FICTION
• ILLITERACY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY FICTION: HEART OF DARKNESS
• THE NON-LITERATEWITHOUT: UNLETTERED CALIBANS IN DISTANT EUROPE
• UNEARTHING THE PRE-LITERATEMIND: WILLIAM GOLDING’S THE INHERITORS
• PROJECTIONS OF A POST-LITERATEMIND: ANGELA CARTER’S HEROES AND VILLAINS
• POSTCOLONIAL RETURNS TO A PRE-LITERATE EUROPE: DAVID MALOUF’S AN IMAGINARY LIFE AND GILLIAN BOURAS’ APHRODITE AND THE OTHERS
• THE NON-LITERATE IN SIGHT: THE UNLETTERED NATIVE IN CONTACT NARRATIVES
• EARLY CONTACTS IN FICTIONAL AFRICA
• BUT A GLIMPSE IN THE REAR VIEWMIRROR: THE UNINTELLIGIBLE NATIVE IN GRAHAM GREENE’S THE HEART OF THE MATTER
• ARRIVALS ON A BICYCLE: THE UNINTELLIGIBLE COLONIST IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART
• MEETING IN THE DESERT: MIRAGES OF LITERATE AND NON-LITERATE BARBARITIES IN J.M. COETZEE’S WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS
• LATER CONTACTS IN NEW ZEALAND AND NORTH AMERICA
• ISLANDS OF PRELITERATE ORALITY: LOUISE ERDRICH’S LOVE MEDICINE AND PATRICIA GRACE’S POTIKI
• THE NON-LITERATEWITHIN: ESTABLISHED FORMS OF NON-LITERACY IN LITERATE CULTURES
• ILLITERACY FORGED BY THE INDIAN CASTE SYSTEM
• THE OUTCASTE’S LONGING TO LEARN: MULK RAJ ANAND’S UNTOUCHABLE
• LEARNING TO BELONG TO THE OUTCASTES: SALMAN RUSHDIE’S MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN
• BLACK ILLITERACY FORGED BY SLAVERY AND RACISM
• THE LURE OF WHITE LITERACY: RICHARD WRIGHT’S BLACK BOY
• RESISTINGWHITE LITERACY: TONIMORRISON’S BELOVED
• FORGING A BLACK LITERACY: SAPPHIRE’S PUSH AND ERNEST J. GAINES’ ALESSON BEFORE DYING
• THE ILLITERATE RETURNED: ILLITERACY IN MIGRANT LITERATURE
• THE ILLITERATEMOTHER: MAXINE HONG KINGSTON’S THE WOMAN WARRIOR
• THE ILLITERATE DAUGHTER: JOY KOGAWA’S OBASAN
• GENERATIONS OF ILLITERACY: AMY TAN’S THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER
• CLOSING REMARKS
• BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDEX
• INDEX.