Postcolonial Yearning in Pico Iyer’s Abandon
I am currently researching the role of spirituality in contemporary postcolonial literature. My talk focuses on the spiritual subtext to Pico Iyer’s Abandon. I argue that despite the author’s overt use of western realist and romantic conventions, it is the novel’s adaptation of specific Sufi principles that is key to understanding his work’s narrative and symbolic value.
Asha Sen is professor of English and director of the Women’s Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She specializes in postcolonial feminist literature and theory, and is the author of Postcolonial Yearning: Reshaping Spiritual and Secular Discourses in Contemporary Literature. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.