The aesthetics of the fragment

Progressivism and literary modernism in the work of the All-India Progressive Writers' Association

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2179293
AutoresJennifer Dubrow
Año2019
Volumen55
Número5
Páginas589-601
Fecha de publicación2019-09-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Postcolonial Writing (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1744-9855 • E-ISSN: 1744-9863
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17449855.2019.1635846
OpenAlexW2958726130
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas12

Modernism has been retheorized as a global phenomenon, through phrases such as "geomodernism" or "planetary modernism". This article considers Urdu literary modernism, as it developed in South Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. It offers new readings of canonical texts by writers connected to the All-India Progressive Writers' Association: "Khol Do" by Saadat Hasan Manto, "Subah-e Azadi" by Faiz Ahmad Faiz and "Lajwanti" by Rajinder Singh Bedi. Against Urdu scholarship which views modernism (jadidiyat) as a postcolonial phenomenon, the article argues that in their critique of modernity, reinvention of tradition, approach to myth and interest in visuality these texts demonstrate that progressivism should be understood as part of the history of Urdu literary modernism in South Asia. Manto, Faiz and Bedi deployed an aesthetics of the fragment not only to critique Partition and its protocols, but also to investigate Partition as a crisis of nation, modernity and humanity

Aestheticism · Art · Literature · Modernism (music · Modernity · Partition (number theory · Phenomenon · Politics · Progressivism · Urdu · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Cinema and Culture · South Asian Studies and Diaspora · History · Law · Philosophy