French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Ahmad, In Theory. Nations, Classes, Literatures
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

HAMAD, Aijaz, In Theory. Nations, Classes, Literatures, London, Verso (Radical Thinkers), 2008, 368 p.
ISBN 978 1 84467 202 8

SUMMARY

After the Second World War, nationalism emerged as the principle expression of resistance to Western imperialism in a variety of regions from the Indian subcontinent to Africa, to parts of Latin America and the Pacific Rim. With the Bandung Conference and the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement, many of Europe's former colonies banded together to form a common bloc, aligned with neither the advanced capitalist “First World” nor with the socialist “Second World.” In this historical context, the category of “Third World literature” emerged, a category that has itself spawned a whole industry of scholarly and critical studies, particularly in the metropolitan West, but increasingly in the homelands of the Third World itself.

Setting himself against the growing tendency to homogenize “Third World” literature and cultures, Aijaz Ahmad has produced a spirited critique of the major theoretical statements on “colonial discourse” and “post-colonialism,” dismantling many of the commonplaces and conceits that dominate contemporary cultural criticism. With lengthy considerations of, among others, Fredric Jameson, Edward Said, and the Subaltern Studies group, In Theory also contains brilliant analyses of the concept of Indian literature, of the genealogy of the term “Third World,” and of the conditions under which so-called “colonial discourse theory” emerged in metropolitan intellectual circles.

Erudite and lucid, Ahmad's remapping of the terrain of cultural theory is certain to provoke passionate response.

BIOGRAPHY

Aijaz Ahmad is Professorial Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi, India, and Professor of Political Science at York University in Ontario, Canada. He is the author of Lineages of the Present: Ideological and Political Genealogies of Contemporary South Asia, also from Verso, and is an editor, with Fred Pfeil and Modhumita Roy, of the collection A Singular Voice: Collected Writings of Michael Sprinker.

First published in the early 1990s, Aijaz Ahmad's In Theory represents a landmark Marxist critique of postcolonial theory and cultural studies. Writing from a materialist perspective, Ahmad challenges the tendency of Western academia to homogenize diverse literary traditions under the singular banner of 'Third World literature.' By examining the historical conditions of the post-war era, including the Non-Aligned Movement and the rise of global capitalism, he interrogates how metropolitan intellectual circles constructed colonial discourse theory, offering a rigorous alternative to the dominant paradigms established by figures like Edward Said.

This work is highly valuable for students and scholars of literary theory, Marxist criticism, and postcolonial studies. It helps readers address crucial questions regarding the relationship between literature, nationalism, and class struggle, while warning against the erasure of local historical specificities in global cultural analysis. By deconstructing the institutionalization of literary theory in Western universities, Ahmad provides a vital resource for anyone seeking to understand the political dimensions of contemporary literary criticism and the complex genealogies of non-Western literatures.