Global Literary Study, Postcolonial Study, and Their (Missing) Interrelations: A Materialist Critique

Abstract

This article inquires into why the disputation of the "global" in postcolonial critical discourse has remained largely unnoticed in the debate on "global literary study" initiated by one of North America's most influential literary journals, the Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (PMLA), in its special issue "Globalizing Literary Studies." It scrutinizes what this lack of attention in the PMLA debate says about the relationship between English literary studies in North America and postcolonial literary studies, between the (neo)liberal Western narrative of global modernity and the recent project of global literary study. The materialist literary study of globalization at work in the paper points toward an effectual and dynamic encounter between the literary study of globalization and postcolonial studies.