The Colonial Rise of the Novel

by Firdous Azim

Presents a major challenge to our current understanding of the history of Western literature, in the first feminist and anti-imperialist account of the development of the novel.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Criticism

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Dayra Angarita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would recommend The Colonial Rise of the Novel by Firdous Azim especially to readers who have experienced colonialism in its many forms—culturally, politically, or through education. Azim invites us to question what we usually take for granted about literary history, particularly the idea that the novel is a purely Western invention. We are taught to ask: who wrote the first novel? Cervantes? Defoe? But Azim pushes us to ask a different question: whose stories were allowed to be remembered, and whose were silenced?
The book shows how colonial power shaped not only economies and territories but also literary canons. Texts from Europe were elevated as “universal,” while narratives from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East were marginalized, dismissed, or erased. What we now call the “origin” of the novel is therefore not simply a matter of chronology, but of power. Many narrative traditions existed outside Europe long before the rise of the Western novel, yet they were excluded from recognition because colonialism defined what counted as literature and what did not.
Azim’s work makes clear that the unknown is often not unknown at all—it has been actively silenced. Reading this book helps us see how conquest and cultural domination continue to shape the way we understand literature, history, and whose voices deserve to be heard.

[Nesrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this challening book, Firdous Azim, provides a feminist critique of orthodox accounts of the `rise of the novel' and exposes the underlying orientalist assumptions of the early English novel. Whereas previous studies have emphasized the universality of the coherent and consistent subject which found expression in the novels of the eighteenth century, Azim demonstrates how certain categories: women and people of colour, were silenced and excluded. The Colonial Rise of the Novel makes an important and provocative contribution to post-colonial and feminist criticism. It will be essential reading for all teachers and students of English literature, women's studies, and post-colonial criticism.