Between Commiseration and Compassion. On Mindful Reading of the World that Can no Longer be Captured through Postcolonial Lens Cover Image

Między litością a współodczuwaniem. O uważnym czytaniu świata, który już nie zawsze daje się uchwycić w postkolonialnych kategoriach
Between Commiseration and Compassion. On Mindful Reading of the World that Can no Longer be Captured through Postcolonial Lens

Author(s): Ewa ŁUKASZYK
Subject(s): Comparative Study of Literature, Other Language Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: mindfulness; postcolonial studies; World Literature; paradigms in literary studies;

Summary/Abstract: This contribution establishes a dialogue with the essay of Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand and her proposal of “mindful reading.” The author adds some further comments concerning the notion of mindfulness, getting back to the Buddhist origin of the term. She also criticizes Mroczkowska-Brand’s readiness to speak of postcolonial studies Anno Domini 2020. Quite to the contrary, the author points at the exhaustion of typically postcolonial paradigms in such a rapidly changing world as ours. The persistence of postcolonial mentalities is often treated as a factor of stagnation, just like the eternal return to the Sykes–Picot agreement, shown as quite unfortunate in Fouad Laroui’s novel, Ce vain combat que tu livres au monde. Other examples brought forth as the exemplification of “post-postcolonial” changes in the contemporary world are two novels of Tsitsi Dangarembga, the writings of the Malay intellectual Farish Noor, the city chronicles of Kalaf Epalanga, as well as some texts from Guinea-Bissau (Andrea Fernandes, Tony Tcheka).

  • Issue Year: 16/2019
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 324-335
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Polish