Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Discoursing on slums; representing the cosmopolitan subaltern

Wilson, J. M. (2015) Discoursing on slums; representing the cosmopolitan subaltern. In: Malreddy, P. K., Heidemann, B., Laursen, O. B. and Wilson, J. M. (eds.) Reworking Postcolonialism: Globalization, Labour and Rights :. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 229-243.

Item Type: Book Section
Abstract: Representing the Cosmopolitan Subaltern” identifies the precarious condition of slum dwellers in the interstices of neoliberal market forces, state indifference and subaltern cosmopolitanism(s) within which their subject identities are formed, negotiated and represented. Wilson argues that reconstructions of urban subalternity found in fiction and film are indebted to the methods and discourses of oral history, case study and interview used in anthropological and sociological research on slums. Focusing on the fictionalised accounts of Mumbai’s slum dwellers in Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire (2010) and Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012), she identifies the ambiguous positioning of such “slum narratives” in accommodating space for individual agency that defers to the normative conception of rights in the West, while paying little attention to the collective claims for communal belonging, rights and ownership made by the political community.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Discourse, slums, subaltern, cosmopolitanism, Katherine Boo, Slumdog Millionaire
Creators: Wilson, Janet M
Editors: Malreddy, Pavan Kumar, Heidemann, Birte, Laursen, Ole Birk and Wilson, Janet Mary
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: Research Centres > Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
Faculties > Faculty of Education & Humanities > English and Creative Writing
Date: 7 May 2015
Date Type: Publication
Page Range: pp. 229-243
Title of Book: Reworking Postcolonialism: Globalization, Labour and Rights :
Place of Publication: Basingstoke
Number of Pages: 253
Language: English
ISBN: 9781137435927
Status: Published / Disseminated
Refereed: Yes
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/11556

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