Abstract
Can a subject be sovereign in a hegemony? Can creativity be reined in by forces of
empire? Studying closely the oral narrations and writings of four Indian authors in
colonial India, The Audacious Raconteur argues that even the most hegemonic circumstances
cannot suppress "audacious raconteurs": skilled storytellers who fashion narrative
spaces that allow themselves to remain sovereign and beyond subjugation.
By drawing attention to the vigorous orality, maverick use of photography, literary
ventriloquism, and bilingualism in the narratives of these raconteurs, Leela Prasad
shows how the ideological bulwark of colonialism—formed by concepts of colonial modernity,
history, science, and native knowledge—is dismantled. Audacious raconteurs wrest back
meanings of religion, culture, and history that are closer to their lived understandings.
The figure of the audacious raconteur does not only hover in an archive but suffuses
everyday life. Underlying these ideas, Prasad's personal interactions with the narrators'
descendants give weight to her innovative argument that the audacious raconteur is
a necessary ethical and artistic figure in human experience.
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