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“Solid Knowledge” and Contradictions in Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 51; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00111610903249872

1939-9138

David Wallace Spielman,

South Asian Cinema and Culture

ABSTRACT This essay argues that Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss shows us a radical postcolonial subjectivity in which flexibility, assimilation, and multiculturalism are preferable to maintaining difference. The characters who cling to “solid knowledge” come to bad ends, while those more comfortable with cultural contradictions tend to fare better.