Roger McNamara (Ph.D. Loyola University Chicago, 2010) specializes in Postcolonial literature, with an emphasis on South Asian fiction. He teaches courses in South Asian, African, and Caribbean literature. His research focuses on the tension between secularism and religion in postcolonial fiction. He has published a number of articles on South Asian writing, and his book, Secularism and the Crisis of Minority Identity in Postcolonial Literature (2018), examines how writers belonging to religious and ethnic minority groups in India and Sri Lanka engage secularism in their writing. Currently, he is researching the role of secular and religious enchantment in post-secular novels. He is also working on a couple of articles that explore Catholicism in American and African fiction and politics.   

Book Manuscript

Secularism and the Crisis of Minority Identity in Postcolonial Literature Advanced contract with Lexington Press.

Articles

Published

"The Uneven Aesthetics of I. Allan Sealy's The Trotter-Nama: Secularization, Nationalism, and the Marginalization of the Anglo-Indian Community." Postcolonial Text 10.2 (2015). Online.

"Rational Thought and the Dalitization of Christianity in Karukku." South Asian Review 30.1 (2009): 269-285. Print.

"Re-Narrating the Nation: Race, Sexuality and Hybridity in Aubrey Menen's Autobiographies." New Hybridities: Societies and Cultures in Transition. Eds. Alfonso de Toro and Frank Heidemann. Leipzig: Olms, 2006. 207-222. Print.

Accepted for Publication

"Developing a Fine Balance: A Critique of Secularization in Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters." South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. (scheduled to be published in March 2017)

"Teaching Muslim Women's Writing: Comparative Frameworks for Difference and Critique." Teaching Anglophone South Asian Women's Writing. Ed. Deepika Bahri and Filippo Menozi. Modern Languages Association of America. (accepted for publication pending revisions)

Revise and Resubmit

"Secularism and Enchantment in Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land." Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies

Work in Progress

"Crossing Borders: Cedric Dover, Colored Cosmopolitanism, and Inter-racial Identity."

Reviews

A Review of Manav Ratti's The Postsecular Imagination: Postcolonialism, Religion, and Literature. Peace Review. (accepted)

"A Review of Anuradha Dingwaney Needham's New Indian Cinema in Post-Independence India. South Asian Review. (accepted)

"Asian Indian American Fiction." Encyclopedia of Asian American Culture. Greenwood, 2016.

"Asian Indian American Literature." Encyclopedia of Asian American Culture. Greenwood, 2016.

Bharati Mukherjee. Encyclopedia of Asian American Culture. Greenwood, 2016.

Jhumpa Lahiri. Encyclopedia of Asian American Culture. Greenwood, 2016.

"A Review of Bharati Mukherjee." South Asian Literary Association Newsletter. 32.2 (2008): 8-9. Print.

Associate Professor
Postcolonial Literature

Email: roger.mcnamara@ttu.edu