Archaeology of Babel - by Siraj Ahmed (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book locates the origins of the modern humanities in the philological practices of late 18th-century British scholars in colonial India, offering a radical reappraisal of a range of disciplines and excavating hidden pre-colonial practices that might well help the humanities move beyond their current methodological and political impasses.

Book Synopsis

This book locates the origins of the modern humanities in the philological practices of late 18th-century British scholars in colonial India, offering a radical reappraisal of a range of disciplines and excavating hidden pre-colonial practices that might well help the humanities move beyond their current methodological and political impasses.

Review Quotes

"A work of theory and method, Archaeology of Babel is a very important intervention into a current high-profile discussion of comparative literature. Every chapter of this galvanizing and historically informed book develops new possibilities for the field."--Lee Morrissey "Clemson University"

"According to Siraj Ahmed's revelatory Archaeology of Babel: The Colonial Foundation of the Humanities, modern philology is at once a tool and a product of colonial domination....This is an ambitious, significant, and potentially incendiary book that reconceptualizes humanistic inquiry tout court."--Jayne Lewis "Studies in English Literature"

"An important, scintillating study that deserves a wide interdisciplinary readership, Archaeology of Babel reappraises the historical roots of philology and encourages readers to re-imagine our present."--Talal Asad, The Graduate Center "CUNY"

"Siraj Ahmed launches a powerful critique of the method of comparative philology that has established a hegemony of the printed text, thereby impeding our ability to conceptualize collective life. A reasoned but passionate plea for reading anti-philologically, this impressive book is sure to provoke much discussion."--Partha Chatterjee "Columbia University"

About the Author

Siraj Ahmed is Associate Professor in the Ph.D. Program in English at the Graduate Center, City University of New York and in the Department of English and the Program in Comparative Literature at Lehman College. He is the author of The Stillbirth of Capital: Enlightenment Writing and Colonial India (Stanford University Press, 2012).