Aijaz Ahmad

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Aijaz Ahmad is a well-known Marxist literary theorist and political commentator based in India.

Born in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India just before it gained independence from British rule, Aijaz Ahmad along with his parents migrated to Pakistan following partition. After his education he worked in various universities in US and Canada. At present Aijaz Ahmed is Professorial Fellow at the Centre of Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi and is visiting Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto. He also works as an editorial consultant with the Indian newsmagazine Frontline.

[edit] Books by Aijaz Ahmad

  1. In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures - Verso
  2. Lineages of the Present: Ideological and Political Genealogies of Contemporary South Asia
  3. Iraq, Afghanistan and the Imperialism of Our Time - LeftWord books, New Delhi
  4. On Communalism and Globalization-Offensives of the Far Right - Three Essays Press, New Delhi
  5. A Singular Voice: Collected Writings of Michael Sprinker - Editor (with Fred Pfeil and Modhumita Roy)
  6. In Our Time: Empire, Politics, Culture

In his book In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, Ahmad primarily discusses the role of theory and theorists in the movement against colonialism and imperialism. Ahmad's rhetoric against those who uphold poststructuralism and postmodernist conceptions of material history revolves around the fact that very little has been accomplished since the advent of this brand of postcolonial inquiry.

The de-valuing of the postructuralists and postmodern critics of material history, the agency of history and classes as so much "totalizing narrativization" and essentialisms have rendered the very condition for the acquisition of understanding, truth and knowledge impossible. Collectivist orientations are disregarded in favor of the individual, who in turn is pictured as an abstract entity persuaded that rational knowledge is impossible to truly pin down.

[edit] External links

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