Talk

BFA Visual & Critical Studies and the SVA Honors Program present Nivedita Majumdar to discuss The World in a Grain of Sand, her important new work of literary criticism that offers a framework for reading literature from the global South.

The World in a Grain of Sand offers a framework for reading literature from the global South that goes against the grain of dominant theories in cultural studies, especially, postcolonial theory. It critiques the valorization of the local in cultural theories typically accompanied by a rejection of universal categories – viewed as Eurocentric projections. But the privileging of the local usually amounts to an exercise in exoticization of the South. The book argues that the rejection of Eurocentric theories can be complemented by embracing another, richer and non-parochial form of universalism.

Through readings of texts from India, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Egypt, the book shows that the fine grained engagement with culture, the mapping of ordinary lives not just as objects but subjects of their history, is embedded in much of postcolonial literature in a radical universalism – one that is rooted in local realities, but is able to unearth in them the needs, conflicts and desires that stretch across cultures and time. It is a universalism recognized by Marx and steeped in the spirit of anti-colonialism, but hostile to any whiff of exoticism.

In this lecture, Prof. Majumdar will address the overall theoretical approach she lays out in the book, with its core concept of "radical universalism". She will then compare two Sri Lankan literary works and their reception – Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost and A.N. Sivanandan's When Memory Dies – in light of past and present Sri Lankan politics. By interpreting these works, and what their critics can and cannot see in them, she aims to show the power of literature to resonate with human culture and struggle, as well as the ways in which contemporary critique too often misses the mark.

If you'd like to prepare for the talk, you can read the introductory chapter, which can be found at this link.

Nivedita Majumdar is Professor of English at John Jay College, CUNY. Her research interests include postcolonial studies, discourses of nationalism, Marxist theory and cultural studies; she has published widely in these areas. She is the author of The World in a Grain of Sand: Postcolonial Literature and Radical Universalism (London: Verso, 2021) and The Other Side of Terror, Oxford University Press (2012/2009). She sits on the national council of the AAUP, the Higher Education Programs and Policy Committee of the AFT and has served as Secretary of PSC-CUNY from 2015 to 2021.