Paul Scott’s Philosophy of Place(s): The Fiction of Relationality

This revisionist study of the novels of Paul Scott breaks new ground in literary and postcolonial discourse. Using previously unpublished archival materials and contemporary place theory as fulcrums to examine Scott’s narrative method, Janis E. Haswell examines what she calls Scott’s narrative of relationality - his mastery of multiple perspective and juxtaposition of images, characters, sites, and events. This book shows how the theme of connection valorizes the singular self and the cohesive power of life-narratives in the Raj Quartet and earlier works. Scott’s philosophy of place(s) relates both to England’s imperial past and, more broadly, to contemporary views of self and identity.