Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T19:47:23.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An equal music, an alien world: postcolonial literature and the representation of European culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2005

SILVIA ALBERTAZZI
Affiliation:
Dipartimento Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne, via Cartoleria 5, 40124 Bologna, Italy E-mail: albertaz@lingue.unibo.it

Abstract

The Postcolonial representation of European culture can alter our (European) perspectives on Western arts. The case of the novel An Equal Music by the Indian writer Vikram Seth is particularly interesting. Although set in Europe (between London, Vienna and Venice) and dealing with European characters, situations, landscapes, and cultural myths, the book offers a peculiarly Postcolonial reading of our classical music. Therefore, by applying Said's contrapuntal analysis to Postcolonial writing, I deal with ‘What the Postcolonial means for us’, taking into account, besides European Literature and Postcolonialism, also the relationship between European music and the Postcolonial sensibility, using Said's and Kundera's essays as keys to Seth's musical and fictional world.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)