Interplay of Community, Textuality and Orality: Comparative Perspectives on History, Culture and Society (20-22 November, 2023)
Literary theory has contributed towards the recovery of marginalised narratives and discourses in literature during the last three decades. The word, ‘minor’ has acquired a resonance of its own in the context of ‘national’ literature which tends to be part of a ‘great tradition’. Against such a background, the recovery of diverse indigenous traditions has become an important task of comparative studies of literature. Nations emerged as ‘imagined’ communities. However, nation-states were not ‘imagined’ in the crucible of prolonged struggles of anti-colonial resistance in Asia, Africa and Latin America, but were born of the political exigencies of imperial powers.