Preface,Studies in the Novel

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Preface
Studies in the Novel Pub Date : 2021-03-16
Gaurav Desai

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Preface
Gaurav Desai (bio)

The essays gathered here are the second installment of the journal's special issues on "The Postcolonial Novel, Post-9/11." They continue and extend the conversation begun by the first set of essays, some by revisiting texts such as Karan Mahajan's The Association of Small Bombs and others by pursuing themes such as the treatment of immigrants—especially Muslim and brown immigrants in the west post-9/11. The essays are as concerned with matters of form and genre as they are of theme, plot, and characterization. Like my own introduction to the volume (to which I refer readers interested in a larger framing of the issues),¹ the essays gathered here, while centrally concerned with the relationship of 9/11 and the postcolonial novel, are also marked by more contemporary events and challenges, whether they be the plight of refugees, BREXIT, the rise of rightwing populism, or the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The introduction I refer to was written in the midst of an alarming rise in the rate of COVID-19 deaths, which I reported then to be 172,836 in the US alone. The number this morning is 321,117. So I still write in the midst of a disaster. And yet, there are also signs of hope. Between that introduction, when I lamented that we had "no concrete indications for a successful vaccination or cure," and now, at least one vaccination has been authorized for use and is currently being administered and others are on their way to approval. Seemingly unrelated to the topic at hand—9/11 and the postcolonial novel—I record this for future readers and guest issue editors. As Carlos Alonzo negotiated the meaning and implications of 9/11 even as he edited PMLA, and as the contributors to these special issues and I have attempted to continue our work in the midst of COVID-19 and the nation's reckoning with racial violence, injustice, and police brutality, we are reminded that no space, not even the so-called ivory tower, is insulated from the societal challenges that confront us. There are signs that we will, with enough resolve, overcome both of these crises. What exactly the new normal will look like has yet to be seen. It is my fervent hope that after what we have experienced in 2020 we will work towards forging a society that is racially [End Page vii] just and that has a robust public health infrastructure and other social safety nets that are accessible to all.

Gaurav Desai University of Michigan Gaurav Desai

Gaurav Desai is Chair of the Department and Professor of English at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is the author of Subject to Colonialism: African Self-fashioning and the Colonial Library (2001). His latest book, on narratives of Indian Ocean connections between Africa and India, Commerce with the Universe: Africa, India and the Afrasian Imagination (2013), received the 2014 Rene Wellek Prize from the American Comparative Literature Association.

NOTE

1. See "Introduction: Writing About Disaster Amid One," Studies in the Novel 52.4 (Winter 2020): 377–84.

中文翻译：

前言

代替摘要，这里是内容的简要摘录：

前言
高拉夫·德赛（生物）

此处收集的文章是该杂志有关“后殖民小说，9/11版”的第二期特刊。他们继续并扩展了从第一组论文开始的对话，其中一些是通过重新审视Karan Mahajan的《小炸弹协会》等文本，而另一些则是通过追求诸如移民的待遇等主题来进行的，尤其是9世纪后西部的穆斯林和棕色移民。 / 11。论文与主题，情节和特征一样，与形式和体裁同样重要。就像我自己对本卷的介绍（我将读者对有较大问题的框架感兴趣的那样引向我）一样，¹此处收集的论文虽然集中关注9/11与后殖民小说的关系，但也具有更多当代事件和挑战，无论是难民的困境，英国脱欧，右翼民粹主义的兴起还是全球性的COVID -19年大流行。

我所指的简介是在COVID-19死亡率急剧上升的过程中撰写的，据报道，仅在美国，COVID-19的死亡率就达到172,836。今天早上的电话号码是321117。所以我仍然在灾难中写作。然而，也有希望的迹象。在介绍之间，当我感叹我们没有“成功接种或治愈的具体迹象”时，到现在为止，至少有一种疫苗已获授权使用，目前正在管理中，其他疫苗正在审批中。似乎与手头的主题（9/11和后殖民小说）无关，我将其记录下来，以供将来的读者和特刊编辑使用。当卡洛斯·阿隆佐（Carlos Alonzo）讨论9/11的含义和含义时，即使他编辑了PMLA，作为对这些特殊问题的贡献者，我试图在COVID-19以及该国考虑到种族暴力，不公正和警察暴行的情况下继续开展工作，提醒我们，没有空间，甚至没有这样的空间。所谓的象牙塔，是与我们面临的社会挑战隔离开来的。有迹象表明，我们将有足够的决心克服这两个危机。新的常态究竟会是什么样子，尚待观察。我热切希望，我们在2020年经历了之后，我们将争取建立一个社会，更是种族的工作[尾页VII]公正，具有坚固的公共卫生基础设施和向所有人开放其他社会安全网。

Gaurav Desai密歇根大学Gaurav Desai

Gaurav Desai是密歇根大学安娜堡分校系主任和英语教授。他是《殖民主义主题：非洲的自我塑造和殖民图书馆》（2001年）的作者。他的最新著作《非洲与印度之间的印度洋联系叙事，与宇宙的贸易：非洲，印度和阿弗拉希想象》（2013年）获得了美国比较文学协会2014年里内·韦勒克奖。