Good morning and welcome to yet another session
of the NPTEL course Postmodernism in Literature
. Today's lecture is titled Minor Literature
and Postmodern Narratives and this is also
in continuation with our discussion of Deleuze
and Guattari we which we started undertaking
in the previous session.
Postmodern narratives challenge the idea,
the conventional idea of narratives . It also
encourages us to think beyond the commons
in definitions and the traditional notions
which ah are attributed to narratives and
techniques and ah characteristics of narratives
.
And, consequently with the postmodern turn
which is also a ah ah poststructuralist turn
there are certain narrative consequences that
are we ah engage with we deal with when we
engage with particular kinds of ah texts and
narratives ah such as ah there is ah there
there is no idea of a single author meaning
or a text we have moved away from all of those
ah ah definite ah limiting concepts and also
it is ah radically challenged our views of
what a text is and what the author means and
this is something that we have already taken
a look at right from the beginning of a discussions
related to postmodernism and more importantly
we are also encouraged to discuss the authorial
voice to move away from the certainty of the
text which hitherto was understood be as understood
to be as a sight which offered closed definitive
meanings on the contrary with this moving
away from the authorial voice with this moving
away from the certainty of the text what we
have before us is is the text as a site of
multiple pluralities .
So, these are also some of the things that
we have been discussing continuously ah throughout
ah ah a range of ah discourse is a range of
ah our critical frameworks within the gamut
of postmodernism .
Ah, in addition we also dealt with the fact
that ah contrary to the ah the ah conventional
traditional expectations of a narrative some
of the elements which were said to distort
the meaning making process of the narratives
have ah they have now come to ah be at the
forefront of ah be a narrative process such
as fragmentation, the ideas of freedom, ah
simulation, contamination, and difference
ah ah within in a ah textuality and in the
texuality concepts it is rhizomes ah the move
towards ah an anti totality ah process rather
than a coherent ah process of unity .
So, we have began to notice that these are
some of the elements which now dominate the
ah narratives of particularly the postmodern
writers of the contemporary such as ah Umberto
Eco, ah John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Milan
Kundera, ah Gabriel Garcia Marquez, De Lillo,
ah Rushdie, Graham Swift, Martin Amis to name
a few .
So, ah while we deal with these are consequences
the postmodern narrative consequences it is
also important take a look at certain particular
shifts that happened in this a process and
with relation to ah theories of frameworks
and new concepts which are being introduced
.
So, in continuation with a discussion on Deleuze
and Guattari here we also introduced a theory
of minor literature in this context and ah
theory of this theory of minor literature
was put forward by Deleuze and Guattari in
ah one of the books published in 1975 title
Kafka toward a minor literature.
Ah the title being very self explanatory it
is certainly about Kafka and about how they
developed a theory of minor literature using
the works of Kafka.
This in that sense posits a new approach towards
Kafka's works and they also ah in the continuation
with the most of their other works which rely
on psychoanalysis and also on various aspects
of politics they also engage with discussions
of subversion and politically significant
literature.
And, by engaging with Kafka and by positing
Kafka's work as minor literature what they
are ah doing is a process through which they
begin to contrast a particular kind of writing
against major literatures and ah what they
refer to as major literatures ah ah the literatures
which have been part of literary canon the
literatures which have been written by ah
supposedly greatly literary masters .
So, in ah that sense when he talks about minor
literature he is also talking about the possibility
of a different kind of literature which exists
outside the gamut of ah canon outside the
framework of ah dominant literary critical
practices.
These are some of the arguments that the Deleuze
and Guattari put forward when they talk about
ah ah minor literature . First of all great
literature calling to them all great literature
calling to them would be minor literature
and here, it is important to know that they
do not use the term minor as a derogatory
term while it is used as a ah term to talk
about particular kinds of differences which
are other otherwise not being included which
otherwise ah not ah being ah ah considered
central as part of canon or as part of dominant
critical practices .
And, why is all great literature considered
minor because they argue its language will
be foreign, open, unfinalizable, creative
and mutating and ah what do they mean by foreign?
Foreign is ah needs to be understood as a
ah contrasting term in connection with whatever
that is ah not native and not familiar .
So, here is a celebration of a move away from
the native away from the familiar to talk
about language to talk about particular practices
as being ah foreign and by by ah ah consequence
they also become open rather than closed unfinalizable
rather than talking about certainties talking
about unities incoherences and ah here they
also refer to the process because the process
is about becoming and the event is more about
a product it also begins to make sense in
multiple ways.
This is about a process this is about to becoming
rather than engaging with a final product
it is unfinilizable and it is also more creative
rather than limited to particular kinds of
representations and expressions .
And, ah it would not be wrong to say that
when ah Deleuze and Guattari talk about minor
literature they are also celebrating a revolutionary
kind a revolutionary way of writing which
they ah ah they think Kafka exemplified it
also enables us to talk about literature,
to talk about particular kinds of writings
beyond the realm of classical works and traditional
literary criticism .
So, here ah the postmodernist theories they
begin to very radically affect the ways in
which critical establishment ah works the
ways in which critical practices have been
ah employed they also provide ah ah leaving
into not just a different kind of writing,
but also do a different kind of reading and
a different kind of critical practice to be
in place .
In order to understand this in a ah better
context we also need to be a little more familiar
with one we ah other works by Deleuze and
Guattari A Thousand Plateaus which was published
in 1980 . So, ah here ah they draw attention
to the distinction between the majoritarian
and minoritarian cultural practices though
there is a work it does not likely refer to
minor literature it becomes a quite ah important
in understanding what they mean by minor literature
and how they begin to define ah majoritarian
and minoritarian ah practices . A Thousand
Plateaus was one of the most influential works
by Deleuze and Guattari and it was ah written
in a non-linear ah fashion, it was also considered
as a major statement in the context of post
structuralism and postmodernism.
As one of the commentators Deleuze and Guattari
would put it majoritarian is an opposition
based on already established terms where the
distinction relies on one privileged or dominant
term . So, ah this ah the the complexity of
the definitions attributed to majoritarian
and minoritarian ah could be further simplified
using the example of man and woman . Man is
used as a privileged term and therefore, the
opposition the way in which the term woman
is defined in opposition to ah man it is also
in terms of the majoritarian impulse which
is attributed to the term man, because there
is a man is a by virtue of being defined in
this ah ah context of being majoritarian or
minoritarian man automatically the term man
automatically assumes the position of a standard
the position of a norm which does not exist
for the term woman .
So, in that sense the term man becomes more
expressive rather than creative.
It becomes a norm, it becomes a standard in
opposition to which the term woman needs to
be ah talked about and we we cannot say a
woman can be again defined because the definitions
has have already been set.
The definitions have already been ah ah attributed
to the term man and the woman can be talked
about the woman can be ah ah the woman can
be referred to only in opposition to this
majoritarian impulse .
So, ah ah Deleuze and Guattari draw a our
attention to this ah fact that ah once the
term becomes more expressive rather than creative
we see a majoritarian impulse operating in
connection to that term ah in in the same
way if ah ah the term woman was considered
more as a ah more in terms of ah ah no more
in terms of a standard we could also see the
majoritarian impulse operating in association
with the term woman and ah this ah could be
ah the same could be ah seen as ah being applicable
to a number of other binary words such as
black and white or or good and bad there is
a way in which a privileged word is being
associated with certain majoritarian impulses
and we also see the other binary term being
defined in opposition to this privileged term.
In that sense it is also important to know
that when we talk about a woman in this context
as a linguistic aspect as a concept which
language talks about there is only a possibility
of becoming a woman and not defining because
the term has already been defined vis a vis
the majoritarian impulse associated with the
term man .
And ah when we talk about minor literature
and how ah Deleuze and Guattari have been
theorizing minor literature with respect to
the works of Kafka it is also important to
understand who Kafka is . Ah Kafka lived from
ah 1883 to 1924, he is also considered as
one of the early modernist writers . Some
of his ah famous works include the metamorphosis
in the trial and the castle which are all
in examples of ah realism and also about ah
ah existentialism which which is ex which
are exemplified in his ah most of his works
.
And, there is even a term associated with
the writings of Kafka Kafkaesque because ah
Kafka ah essentially did not emit at any kind
of writing, but ah he in turn a gave rise
to a kind of writing which became a standard
on it is own . Kafka's life and the ah choices
that he made in terms of his writing a particularly
interesting because he was born in a German
speaking a family by living in Prague ah he
was also Jewish origin which ah further complicated
matters for him and he also lived in a ah
province where there existed hostile relationships
between those who speak German and those who
to speak ah Czech and though ah Kafka was
familiar and well versed in both these languages
a Czech and German he considered German and
his mother tongue and he wrote mostly in German
.
So, his writing his identity which emerged
through writing was fraught with in the conflicts
which were part of culture territory and the
political ah issues of those times.
So, it is in this context that we find Deleuze
and Guattari developing a theory of ah a minor
literature in connection with the writings
of Kafka .
So, what prompts Deleuze and Guattari to look
at a Kafka's writings as minor literature
because Kafka was a Czech and he was writing
in the language that was not his own German
and therefore, he was operating in the realm
without standards and definitions.
Here we notice that language also becomes
a tool through which ah yardsticks ah standards
and particular kinds of definitions and ah
ah ah set ah opinions also emerge and here
by moving away from ah certain kinds of expectations
by possessing particular kinds of identities
are not choosing to write in a way that would
reflect that kind of identity Deleuze and
Guattari argue kafka becomes the author of
minor literature .
This is also because he displays a certain
openness to change . He is ah he is ah embracing
possibilities, he is engaging with the ideas
of becoming rather than ah about a fixed ah
fixed entities fixed identities and about
and rather than ah being ah ah ah rather than
continuing to be ah stuck with certain rigid
a compartmentalized, rigid institutionalized
ideas about ideas about ah ah language about
identity and about the politics associated
with it .
So, ah here ah by extension by using Kafka,
Deleuze and Guattari are also leading us to
believe that great literature emerges when
one is open to change when one embraces the
possibilities of becoming rather than sticking
to the definitions the standards which are
have always already been there and Kafka is
a particularly interesting example to take
in this case because he wrote without a sense
of the people or any fixed identity . Instead
he wrote about to world about a set of people
ah who are yet to come who is somewhere in
the future ah he ah about a set of people
who were in the process of defining themselves
rather than a people who always already had
a kind of identity which they could own as
their own.
To quote it will be useful to go through a
very brief brief excerpt from Deleuze and
guattaris work where they talk about minor
literature.
A minor literature does not come from a minor
language it is a rather that which are minority
constructs within a major language , but the
first characteristic of minor literature in
any case is that in it language is affected
with a high coefficient of deterritorialization
. In this sense a Kafka marks the impasse
that bars access to writing from the Jews
of Prague and turns the literature into something
impossible - the impossibility of not writing,
the impossibility of writing in German, the
impossibility of writing otherwise .
The three characteristics of minor literature
are the deterritorialization of language the
connection of the individual to a political
immediacy and the collective assemblage of
enunciation . We might as well say that minor
no longer designate specific literatures by
the revolutionary conditions for every literature
within the heart of what is called great or
established literature.
Here, it is ah it is important to draw your
attention to certain very specific aspects
that Deleuze and Guattari talk about minor
needs to be understood in the context that
is defamiliarize to us in a context that defines
the common sense conventional ah meanings
that are attributed to the term minor . Here
minor does not refer to a minor language and
minor does not refer to a community which
is ah ah ah hierarchically placed in a minority
status .
On the contrary it is about a revolutionary
kind of writing as ah they put forward and
it also has particular characteristics the
first one of deterritorialization of language
, the connection of ah the individual to a
certain political immediacy and also the collective
assemblage of enunciation.
So, in Kafka's writing we find all of the
three elements coming together and this is
a particularly noticeable as ah Deleuze and
Guattari themselves ah ah talk about the impossibility
of writing to the Jews in ah ah Prague ah
how Kafka turns a literature into something
impossible .
So, here he is actually using languages which
are always already available and using the
same set of language the same kind of language
and ah the existing ah system of politics
into a possibility which would help him to
produce something entirely new, entirely revolutionary
and there ah ah Deleuze and Guattari believe,
rest the possibility of new literatures emerging,
great literature emerging which are also minor
in nature.
So, this idea of minor it is not a pejorative
term, it is not used as a derogatory term
instead it emerges as a term for an icon ah
for icon of a difference of process and of
becoming . So, we need to move away from the
conventional the traditional definitions which
are attributed to minor and as opposed to
the ah as opposed to literatures and ah ah
artists and writers being a major and on the
contrary we need to approach the term minor
in a peculiar sense because according to Deleuze
and Guattari the also the term also stands
for freedom from oppressive norms in standard
and freedom from fixed definitions and this
incidentally is the crux of postmodern ah
postmodern writing, postmodern approaches
.
And, ah when they talk about minor literature
they are also talking about a kind of literature
which does not conform to role models or stereotypes
something which moves away from the set standards,
something that moves away from the demands
of dominant critical practices . It is also
kind of literature which rejects all kinds
of definitions that exist ah as a commonplace
and also open to defiance and this kind of
literature Deleuze and Guattari argue and
through the examples from kafka this kind
of literature they argue it thrives on defiance
and subversion and resist the truth ah resist
totality of any kind and this incidentally
is also some of the things that we have been
talking about right from the beginning in
connection with discussions related to postmodernism.
Postmodernism also like minor literature is
a move away from any attempt to ah ah bring
in ah sense of totality any attempt to bring
in coherence, any conscious attempt to stick
to a pattern, stick to particular kinds of
definitions.
On the contrary it encourages the moving away
from all kinds of patterns all kinds of coherences
all sorts of systems which ah encouraged the
building of a unity.
To ah co Deleuze and Guattari again this is
the glory of this sort of minor literature
to be the revolutionary force for all literature
. The utilization of English and of every
language enjoys the utilization of French
and English and Beckett . So, they also ah
draw our attention to the fact that Kafka
ah is not and certainly not the only example
that we can use to talk about minor literature
we can also talk about Joyce about Beckett
we are also are the leading modernist ah figures
of the early twentieth century .
And, ah the key word here is again revolution
any kind of literature which has a possibility
of revolution not just in terms of the content,
but in terms of the language which is being
used in terms of the defiance that in this
place ah against the existing dominant critical
practices, it has the possibility it has the
potential to become minor literature .
So, what are the implications of this kind
of your reading Deleuze and Guattari it ah
may be possible to say that they enable us
to recognize Kafka's social position as a
marginalized author and incidentally this
happens through the medium of language that
he uses through a problematizeation of the
language of his choice which he uses for his
creative expression and because Kafka is identified
here as a Czech Jew who wrote in German which
was not a very acceptable thing which is not
a very familiar ah thing either and here as
Raman Selden leading a theorist or would put
it . We are being introduced to a Kafka as
a nonconformist innovatory and interrogative
as opposed to a majoritarian literature which
aims to represent a given world and to match
established models .
So, here ah some of the key words are very
important a majority of the literature vis-a-vis
minor literature it is it aims to represent
, but Kafka's literature or Beckett's or Joyce's
literature which you can easily fall into
the category of minor literature according
to Deleuze and Guattari they do not propose
to represent particular identities they do
not propose to represent particular kinds
of groups particular kinds of ah ah social
ah ah ah fabric or particular kinds of concepts
.
On the contrary they exist as nonconformist
introa ah innovative and interrogative and
they also try to be creative.
They also try to move away from the existing
identities rather than representing them and
for the same reason when they use language
in particular ways that also becomes a ah
ah ah revolutionary way through which they
reject existing identities and existing forms
of ah ah practices of writing.
And, and here significantly we use of language
as a critical tool as ah ah as a de demarcatery
of force that also happens in a very postmodernist
way and we have also seen how language plays
a very significant ah role in the poststructuralist
ah ah thinking in the postmodernist ah thinking,
how language has ceased to be a given and
and how it also becomes a ah ah ah definite
unique kind of a tool in the in in in the
format of postmodern thinking .
So, ah here when Deleuze and Guattari talk
about minor literature and how Kafka dissociative
himself from a certain kinds of identity by
a particular kind of use of language ; language
in that sense over here, is not associated
with a body or person . On the contrary it
becomes it emerges as a collective and dispersed
identity and when it becomes associated with
a person they also remind us when language
becomes associated with ah particular person
event or a context it is reterritorialized.
So, what ah Kafka or Joyce or Beckett does
with language is a kind of ah ah deterritorialization
.
So, when language is not associated with the
body, with an identity, a particular person,
a kind of deterritorialization happens that
is also a concept that Deleuze and Guattari
discussed extensively in some of their works
and in the contrary I repeat when language
is again associated with a person, a particular
event or with the context it is reterritorialized
.
So, here the play of language it is again
a very typical thing in the postmodern period
display of language becomes a determinant
force not just in identifying particular kinds
of literature , but also it has a potential
to identify how a literature becomes revolutionary,
innovative or how it moves away from the dominant
critical practices .
So, in that context minor literature also
gets identified and defined as a kind of a
language and literature of groups that seek
creativity rather than expression of any identity.
So, here creativity ah is ah ah demarcated
as a very unique and distinct thing vis-à-vis
expression or representation and here you
also lies a revolutionary potential inherent
in minor literatures and ah the writings as
it is of ah Kafka ah Joyce and Beckett and
ah ah here language also becomes a ah ah tool,
a force through which one can also seek identity
through the process of writing .
And, ah here in fact, one needs to make a
distinction between the it identities which
have always preexisted and the identities
the new identities which need to be forged
minor literatures ah occurred in the context
of certain kinds of identities which are not
given certain kind of identities which do
not preexist on the contrary minor literatures
exist in the context of communities of identities
that also have the need to forge a new identity,
forge a new sense of community and a new sense
of meaning because they are also defying all
kinds of constructs of the dominant societal,
linguistic and ideological norms .
And, ah in that sense language also here ah
focuses on the aspect of becoming rather than
ah merely expressing or representing . So,
language also becomes a language of such and
this is also exemplified in the works of Toni
Morrison and Alice Walker because they could
also be considered as writers of minor literature.
This is also a parallel that along the leading
ah commentators of ah theory Promod Nayar
draws extensively and ah builds upon it and
ah he talks about how Toni Morrison and Alice
Walker they refuse to accept the identities
that were readily available to them as blacks
in America.
But, on the contrary they move away from these
readily available identities, these readily
available subject positions and they try to
find new forms of expression that would invent
new identities.
For example, we know the kind of things a
Toni Morrison and Alice Walker engaged with
they engaged with the identities of not just
a blacks, but also about identities which
were part of a women about a lesbians about
other marginalized ah communities and identities
.
So, in that sense the language which minor
literature uses it becomes a language of becoming,
the language of search, the language of inventing
a ah ah language of becoming a new identity
rather than ah expressing or representing
of preexisting and already existing, identity
or a position .
So, when we talk about forging new identities
there are also other examples that come to
our mind for example, the aboriginal writers
in ah Australia and the Canada they also turn
to certain oral traditions and storytelling
formats in search of a form that can invent
new identities rather than simply accept or
represent the readymade ones, because there
is a need to look beyond the fixed categorizations,
a need to look beyond ah access beyond the
existing identities which are also which which
are also part of certain cultural constructs
ah also part of certain social hierarchical
systems which of ah been inherent in the societies
.
So, ah it is important to ah see ah say categories
it is a black, aboriginal or a woman and not
as fixed ah identities, but as a process,
a process of becoming as a series of negotiations
with other identities rather than seeing them
as ah fixed negotiable category categories
.
So, here we also draw a parallel with all
the discussions that we have been having about
how postmodernism encourages a certain unfinalazibility
of meaning, how it is more open rather than
closed , how it is open to the forging of
new possibilities rather than to the a fixation
of limiting ah categories and in that sense
ah we also ah in that sense when we talk about
minor literature it is also about reiterating
the fact that there is nothing proper there
is no standard identity and nothing is pre
given everything is in the process of becoming
and even the moment you stop this process
the moment you ah put a brake on this process
of becoming, it also ceases to be open it
also ceases to engage with the possibility
of forging new identities.
So, to sum up minor literature is any writing
that refuses to provide a unified a definitive
identity on the contrary it focuses on escapes,
on flows, on deterritorialization, on the
processes of unfinalizability and becoming
and ah minor literature is also a kind of
literature that studies differences deviations
variations and possibilities rather than fixed
stable identities and this as Deleuze and
Guattari would tell us it could be it it ah
it is exemplified in the works of Kafka ah
Joyce ah Beckett and the Alice and ah minor
literature is also a literature that seeks
evolution rather than finished products.
So, ah the the the focus on becoming rather
than representation becomes all the more important
.
And, ah it is it is also important to keep
in mind that minor literature is not always
about minorities and it need not be and it
is ah it it need not have to be by or about
minorities it is certainly minor the term
needs to be understood in a very different
input and that continues to be the crux of
for the theory of minor literature and how
it connects with the postmodern narrative
techniques .
And, also it is a move away from being conventional
because it adopts other forms it steals from
multiple sources it creates disruptive images
again Toni Morrisons example about how in
her depiction of goals she refuses to attributor
type to them and ah minor literatures also
about moving away from the conventional ah
easy binaries of say man woman human animal
or even about constant related to beauty about
ah good and evil and this refusal is at the
crux of the emergence of the possibility of
minor literature.
As and when we begin to line up this lecture
it is also important to reiterate the connection
between writer and text which the postmodernist
approach has repeatedly tried to disrupt . And
Deleuze and Guattari are also inviting us
to this process of subversion by ah paying
a code to close attention to language and
to author . Here and we also note ah a lot
of similarities with that of ah a Barthe's
Death of the Author, in terms of the theories
and methods have adopted by both ah Barthe
as well as ah ah ah Deleuze and Guattari .
And, ah ah Barthe's text just as Death of
the Author or even Foucault's ah What is an
Author, the way in which it helps us to understand
the relation between writer and literature
is further complicated, is further problematized
by Deleuze and Guattari's engagement to with
minor literature and how the language plays
a role in subverting particular kinds of identities
and particular kinds of writings .
And, ah this is where we also look at the
postmodern shift which is inherent in this
theory of ah ah minor literature because it
encourages us to see literature beyond what
is said and to evaluate how things are set
and also to bend language to deprive of its
familiarity to to move away consciously from
the familiarity from the trap of familiarity
that language entails and these choices Deleuze
and Guattari just like Barthe does reminds
us that it is also part of the choices which
are to be considered by the writer because
the writer also has an inherent responsibility
to move away from the familiar or to ah deterritorialize
a language in the way that Deleuze and Guattari
ah talk about the ideas of minor literature
.
So, here we come to the end of ah today's
session maybe you also reiterate they need
to talk about these ah existing dialogues
across the postmodern ah writers across the
postmodern ah theories and frameworks because
they all ah lead us to the possibilities of
ah ah innovative changes to the possibilities
of newer identities, to the possibilities
of moving away from the fixed, from the constructed
identities and from the constructed forms
of reading a text.
So, with this we wind up today's session.
Thank you for listening and I look forward
to seeing you in the next session .
