Zitationsvorschlag
Lizenz (Kapitel)
Dieses Werk steht unter der Lizenz Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International.
Identifier (Buch)
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Resentment from Below: Manu Joseph’s Serious Men as a Subaltern Prism on Indian Modernity
ABSTRACT Based on a thematic analysis, we propose a sociological reading of Manu Joseph’s Serious Men that explores the relationship between modern science and Indian society. The novel reflects, among other aspects, on the Janus-faced impact of the institutionalization of science and higher education in modern India from a subaltern perspective. In that regard, Joseph’s contemporary story of lower-class Dalits offers at least two interpretative angles: on the one hand, a hegemonic position of collision avoidance as incumbent forces redirect the organization of science to preserve the traditional social order; and on the other hand, a subaltern position that attempts to break the wheel of social stratification as characters excluded from institutional positions of power exercise their agency to manipulate the political strife within their workplace. In the first reading, the autonomy of science degrades into social irresponsibility; in the second, the autonomy of science is used, for right or for wrong, as a weapon against multiple structures of oppression. From both angles, the novel deconstructs the conventional view of an autonomous science as a self-evident ideal of India’s postcolonial modernity.
KEYWORDS caste, Dalits, India, Indian writing in English, science in society
