{"product_id":"archaeology-of-babel-the-colonial-foundation-of-the-humanities-hardback-9780804785297","title":"Archaeology of Babel; The Colonial Foundation of the Humanities (Hardback) 9780804785297","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eArchaeology of Babel\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThe Colonial Foundation of the Humanities\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eSiraj Ahmed (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780804785297\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 12 December 2017\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e280 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"A work of theory and method, \u003ci\u003eArchaeology of Babel\u003c\/i\u003e is a very important intervention into a current high-profile discussion of comparative literature. Every chapter of this galvanizing and historically informed book develops new possibilities for the field.\"—Lee Morrissey, Clemson University \"Siraj Ahmed launches a powerful critique of the method of comparative philology that has established a hegemony of the printed text, thereby impeding our ability to conceptualize collective life. A reasoned but passionate plea for reading anti-philologically, this impressive book is sure to provoke much discussion.\"—Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University \"An important, scintillating study that deserves a wide interdisciplinary readership, \u003ci\u003eArchaeology of Babel\u003c\/i\u003e reappraises the historical roots of philology and encourages readers to re-imagine our present.\"—Talal Asad, The Graduate Center, CUNY \"According to Siraj Ahmed's revelatory \u003ci\u003eArchaeology of Babel: The Colonial Foundation of the Humanities\u003c\/i\u003e, modern philology is at once a tool and a product of colonial domination....This is an ambitious, significant, and potentially incendiary book that reconceptualizes humanistic inquiry \u003ci\u003etout court\u003c\/i\u003e.\"—Jayne Lewis, \u003ci\u003eStudies in English Literature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor more than three decades, preeminent scholars in comparative literature and postcolonial studies have called for a return to philology as the indispensable basis of critical method in the humanities. Against such calls, this book argues that the privilege philology has always enjoyed within the modern humanities silently reinforces a colonial hierarchy. In fact, each of philology's foundational innovations originally served British rule in India.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTracing an unacknowledged history that extends from British Orientalist Sir William Jones to Palestinian American intellectual Edward Said and beyond, \u003ci\u003eArchaeology of Babel\u003c\/i\u003e excavates the epistemic transformation that was engendered on a global scale by the colonial reconstruction of native languages, literatures, and law. In the process, it reveals the extent to which even postcolonial studies and European philosophy—not to mention discourses as disparate as Islamic fundamentalism, Hindu nationalism, and global environmentalism—are the progeny of colonial rule. Going further, it unearths the alternate concepts of language and literature that were lost along the way and issues its own call for humanists to reckon with the politics of the philological practices to which they now return.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eIntroduction: The Colonial History of Comparative Method\u003cbr\u003e  1. First Stratum: The Literary. The Persian Imperium and Hafiz, 1771 A.D. – 1390 A.D.\u003cbr\u003e  2. Second Stratum: The Immanent. Sharia and the Muallaqāt, 1782 A.D. – 550 A.D.\u003cbr\u003e  3. Third Stratum: The Originary. The Dharma and Śakuntalā, 1794 A.D. – 1400 B.C.\u003cbr\u003e  Conclusion: Genealogies of Emergency\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Stanford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52548948033816,"sku":"9780804785297","price":74.59,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/archaeology-of-babel-the-colonial-foundation-of-the-humanities-hardback-9780804785297","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}