States of disconnect: the China-India literary relation in the twentieth century

Abstract

"States of Disconnect develops a critical vocabulary for apprehending disconnect, a defining condition of our times. In a world caught between the waning of globalized hyper-connectivity and the reemergence of reactionary nationalisms, this book offers ways of relating with cultural others anew, against both the unequal flows of globalization and the exclusionary paradigms of narrow nationalisms. Disconnect, the book argues, is not the antonym of connection but a state of being that makes possible new ways of relating with cultural others in moments conventionally seen as detrimental to connection, such as violence, hostility, or even indifference. Focusing on the case of China and India, the book studies the dialogic capacities of disconnect, and as such, offers a new approach to transnational literary comparison"--