Uneven critical seascapes:
(Re)Orienting Indian Ocean literary studies towards the debate on world-literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5752/P.2358-3428.2024v28n64p47-84Keywords:
Indian Ocean Literatures, world-literature, language, nation, João Paulo Borges CoelhoAbstract
The Indian Ocean has been defined and addressed as a transnational critical and literary paradigm for the construction of multilingual comparative cartographies for the study of African literatures (Hofmeyr, 2007). The scholarship in Indian Ocean literary studies has stood out for its critical ambition and theoretical boldness in defining new concepts and corpus, outlining original definitions for aesthetic and literary forms of the Indian Ocean world (Samuelson, 2017). Analyzing the state of the art within this debate, some questions can be raised: to what extent is the Indian Ocean literary world capable of responding to problems and blind-spots that characterize the field of literary studies, today? How can aesthetics and literary forms of the Indian Ocean be observed (or not) as paradigmatic registration of the world-literary system? This chapter intends to partially rehearse answers to these questions, tacking the Indian Ocean as an uneven literary seascape and therefore striving to outline a selection of literary forms that point to its material (re)composition.
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References
Alpers, Edward, The Indian Ocean in World History, Oxford University Press, 2013
Bhabha, Homi K. Nation and Narration. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Bose, Sugata. A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in an Age of Global Empire. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006.
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Brugioni, Elena, Orlando Grossegesse, Paulo de Medeiros (eds.) A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho. Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2020.
Casanova, Pascale. The World Republic of Letters. Trad. M.B. DeBevoise. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2004 [1999].
Chaundhury, K. N. Asia before Europe: Economy and Civilization of the Indian Ocean from the rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge Eng. Cambridge UP, 1990.
Cheah, Peng. What Is a World?: On Postcolonial Literature as World Literature, 2008. What is a world? On world literature as world-making activity. Daedalus 137: 26–38, 2016. Dasgupta, U. ed., The world of the Indian Ocean merchant 1500–1800: collected essays of Ashin Das Gupta, New Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Eagleton, Terry. Esperança sem Otimismo. Trad. Fernando Santos. São Paulo, Editora Unesp, 2023.
Fawaz, Leila Tarazi et al. (Eds.) Modernity and Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Falconi, Jessica"Enchanted Things to Narrate the Oceans: João Paulo Borges Coelho and Luís Cardoso” in Portuguese Studies 37(2), Literatures and Cultures of the Indian Ocean (2021), pp. 224-241.
Frank, Andre Gunder, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1998.
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Gramsci, Antonio. Quaderni del Carcere. Edizione critica a cura dell’Istituto Gramsci. Torino: Einaudi, 2007.
Ghosh, Devleena & Muecke, Stephen (eds.) Cultures of Trade: Indian Ocean Exchanges. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007.
Gupta, Pamila et al. (Eds.) Eyes Across the Water. Navigating the Indian Ocean. Unisa Press & Penguin India, 2010.
Hall, Richard, Empires of the monsoon: a history of the Indian Ocean and its invaders, London: Harper Collins, 1996.
Hofmeyr, Isabel. ”The Black Atlantic Meets the Indian Ocean: Forging New Paradigms of Transnationalism for the Global South – Literary and Cultural Perspectives", Social Dynamics, (33)2, 2007, pp. 3-32
Huggan, Graham. The Postcolonial Exotic. Marketing the Margins. London and New York: Rutledge, 2001..
Kearney, Milo. The Indian Ocean in World History . London: Routledge, 2004.
Larson, Pier M. Ocean of Letters: Language and Creolization in an Indian Ocean Diaspora. Cambridge, 2009.
Lavery, Charne. Writing Ocean Worlds. Indian Ocean Fiction in English. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
Leite, Ana Mafalda "Narratives of the Indian Ocean in the Writing of João Paulo Borges Coelho: A Transnational Geography” in Brugioni, Elena, Orlando Grossegesse, Paulo de Medeiros (eds.) A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho. Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2020, pp. 91-106.
McPhearson, Kenneth. The Indian Ocean: A History of People and the Sea. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Miranda, Rui Gonçalves. "History, Literatures and the Indices of the Ocean: Forces of signification in Borges Coelho’s ‘A força do mar de Agosto’" in Brugioni, Elena, Orlando Grossegesse, Paulo de Medeiros (eds.) A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho. Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2020, pp. 107-130. Moorthy, Shanti, Ashraf Jamal (eds.) Indian Ocean studies: cultural, social, and political perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Moretti, Franco. Distant Reading. London: Verso, 2013.
Pearson, Michael N.“History of the Indian Ocean: a Review Essay” WASAFIRI, 26 (2), 2011, 78-99.
—— The Indian Ocean. London: Routledge, 2003.
Said, Edward W. Beginning, 1998 –– Culture and Imperialism. London: Verso, 1993 –– Humanism and Democratic Criticism. London Verso, 2004. Samuelson, Meg. “Costal Form: Amphibian Positions, Wider Worlds, and Planetary Horizons on the African Indian Ocean Littoral”, Comparative Literature, 69(1), 2017, pp. 16-24.
Soyinka, Wole “Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Tradition”. Transition 48, 1975: 38-44.
—— Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Steinberg, Philip, Kimberley Peters. “Wet Ontologies, Fluid Spaces: Giving Depth to Volume through Oceanic Thinking” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 33:2, 2015, pp. 247-264.
Vink, Markus P. M. "Indian Ocean Studies and the ‘new thalassology’". Journal of Global History, 2, 2007, pp 41-62 doi:10.1017/S1740022807002033
Wallerstein, Immanuel. World-System Analysis. An Introduction. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2004.
WREC (2015) Combined and Uneven Development. Towards a New Theory of World-Literature. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015. ––– Desenvolvimento Combinado e Desigual. Por uma nova teoria da literatura-mundial. Tradução Gabriela Beduschi Zanfelice. Campinas: Editora Unicamp, 2020.
––– “Collectivity and Crisis in the Long Twentieth Century". Modern Language Quarterly 81:4, 2020. DOI 10.1215/00267929-8637924
Zanfelice, Gabriela Beduschi “Cartografias Transnacionais do Oceano Índico em Índicos Indícios” In Elena Brugioni, Fernanda Gallo, Gabriela Beduschi Zanfelice (orgs.). A obra literária de João Paulo Borges Coelho. Panorama Crítico. Campinas Editora Unicamp, 2022, pp. 79-100.
Bhabha, Homi K. Nation and Narration. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Bose, Sugata. A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in an Age of Global Empire. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006.
Braudel, Fernand. La Méditerranée, vol. 1: L’espace et l’histoire, vol. 2: Les hommes et l’héritage. Paris: Flammarion, 1985.
Borges Coelho, João Paulo. Índicos Indícios I. Setentrião. Lisboa: Caminho, 2005. Borges Coelho, João Paulo. Índicos Indícios II. Meridião. Lisboa: Caminho, 2005a.
Brugioni, Elena, Fernanda Gallo, Gabriela Beduschi Zanfelice. A obra literária de João Paulo Borges Coelho. Panorama Crítico. Campinas Editora Unicamp, 2022.
Brugioni, Elena, Orlando Grossegesse, Paulo de Medeiros (eds.) A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho. Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2020.
Casanova, Pascale. The World Republic of Letters. Trad. M.B. DeBevoise. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2004 [1999].
Chaundhury, K. N. Asia before Europe: Economy and Civilization of the Indian Ocean from the rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge Eng. Cambridge UP, 1990.
Cheah, Peng. What Is a World?: On Postcolonial Literature as World Literature, 2008. What is a world? On world literature as world-making activity. Daedalus 137: 26–38, 2016. Dasgupta, U. ed., The world of the Indian Ocean merchant 1500–1800: collected essays of Ashin Das Gupta, New Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Eagleton, Terry. Esperança sem Otimismo. Trad. Fernando Santos. São Paulo, Editora Unesp, 2023.
Fawaz, Leila Tarazi et al. (Eds.) Modernity and Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Falconi, Jessica"Enchanted Things to Narrate the Oceans: João Paulo Borges Coelho and Luís Cardoso” in Portuguese Studies 37(2), Literatures and Cultures of the Indian Ocean (2021), pp. 224-241.
Frank, Andre Gunder, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1998.
Frank, Andre Gunder & Gills, Barry K., “The Five Thousand Year World System” in Theory and Praxis”, in Robert Denemark et al., World System History: Social Science of Long Term Change, London/NewYork: Routledge, 2000, pp. 3-23.
Gramsci, Antonio. Quaderni del Carcere. Edizione critica a cura dell’Istituto Gramsci. Torino: Einaudi, 2007.
Ghosh, Devleena & Muecke, Stephen (eds.) Cultures of Trade: Indian Ocean Exchanges. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007.
Gupta, Pamila et al. (Eds.) Eyes Across the Water. Navigating the Indian Ocean. Unisa Press & Penguin India, 2010.
Hall, Richard, Empires of the monsoon: a history of the Indian Ocean and its invaders, London: Harper Collins, 1996.
Hofmeyr, Isabel. ”The Black Atlantic Meets the Indian Ocean: Forging New Paradigms of Transnationalism for the Global South – Literary and Cultural Perspectives", Social Dynamics, (33)2, 2007, pp. 3-32
Huggan, Graham. The Postcolonial Exotic. Marketing the Margins. London and New York: Rutledge, 2001..
Kearney, Milo. The Indian Ocean in World History . London: Routledge, 2004.
Larson, Pier M. Ocean of Letters: Language and Creolization in an Indian Ocean Diaspora. Cambridge, 2009.
Lavery, Charne. Writing Ocean Worlds. Indian Ocean Fiction in English. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
Leite, Ana Mafalda "Narratives of the Indian Ocean in the Writing of João Paulo Borges Coelho: A Transnational Geography” in Brugioni, Elena, Orlando Grossegesse, Paulo de Medeiros (eds.) A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho. Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2020, pp. 91-106.
McPhearson, Kenneth. The Indian Ocean: A History of People and the Sea. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Miranda, Rui Gonçalves. "History, Literatures and the Indices of the Ocean: Forces of signification in Borges Coelho’s ‘A força do mar de Agosto’" in Brugioni, Elena, Orlando Grossegesse, Paulo de Medeiros (eds.) A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho. Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2020, pp. 107-130. Moorthy, Shanti, Ashraf Jamal (eds.) Indian Ocean studies: cultural, social, and political perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Moretti, Franco. Distant Reading. London: Verso, 2013.
Pearson, Michael N.“History of the Indian Ocean: a Review Essay” WASAFIRI, 26 (2), 2011, 78-99.
—— The Indian Ocean. London: Routledge, 2003.
Said, Edward W. Beginning, 1998 –– Culture and Imperialism. London: Verso, 1993 –– Humanism and Democratic Criticism. London Verso, 2004. Samuelson, Meg. “Costal Form: Amphibian Positions, Wider Worlds, and Planetary Horizons on the African Indian Ocean Littoral”, Comparative Literature, 69(1), 2017, pp. 16-24.
Soyinka, Wole “Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Tradition”. Transition 48, 1975: 38-44.
—— Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Steinberg, Philip, Kimberley Peters. “Wet Ontologies, Fluid Spaces: Giving Depth to Volume through Oceanic Thinking” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 33:2, 2015, pp. 247-264.
Vink, Markus P. M. "Indian Ocean Studies and the ‘new thalassology’". Journal of Global History, 2, 2007, pp 41-62 doi:10.1017/S1740022807002033
Wallerstein, Immanuel. World-System Analysis. An Introduction. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2004.
WREC (2015) Combined and Uneven Development. Towards a New Theory of World-Literature. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015. ––– Desenvolvimento Combinado e Desigual. Por uma nova teoria da literatura-mundial. Tradução Gabriela Beduschi Zanfelice. Campinas: Editora Unicamp, 2020.
––– “Collectivity and Crisis in the Long Twentieth Century". Modern Language Quarterly 81:4, 2020. DOI 10.1215/00267929-8637924
Zanfelice, Gabriela Beduschi “Cartografias Transnacionais do Oceano Índico em Índicos Indícios” In Elena Brugioni, Fernanda Gallo, Gabriela Beduschi Zanfelice (orgs.). A obra literária de João Paulo Borges Coelho. Panorama Crítico. Campinas Editora Unicamp, 2022, pp. 79-100.
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Published
2024-12-31
How to Cite
BRUGIONI, Elena. Uneven critical seascapes:: (Re)Orienting Indian Ocean literary studies towards the debate on world-literature. Scripta, Belo Horizonte, v. 28, n. 64, p. 47–84, 2024. DOI: 10.5752/P.2358-3428.2024v28n64p47-84. Disponível em: https://periodicos.pucminas.br/scripta/article/view/33449. Acesso em: 28 aug. 2025.
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