Preface  ix

Introduction. "The Rot Remains": From Ruins to Ruination / Ann Laura Stoler  1

Part I. Decompositions of Matter and Mind  

1. An Acoustic Register: Rape and Repetition in Congo / Nancy Rose Hunt  39

2. The Coolie: An Unfinished Epic / E. Valentine Daniel  67

3. Empire's Ruin: Detroit to the Amazon / Greg Grandin  115

Part II. Living in Ruins: Degradations and Regenerations  

4. Detritus in Durban: Polluted Environs and the Biopolitics of Refusal / Sharad Chari  131

5. Ruins, Redemption, and Brazil's Imperial Exception / John Collins  162

6. When a Demolished House Becomes a Public Square / Ariella Azoulay  194

Part III. Anticipating the Imperial Future  

7. The Void: Invisible Ruins on the Edges of Empire / Gastón Gordillo  227

8. Engineering the Future as Nuclear Ruin / Joseph Masco  252

9. The Future in Ruins / Vyjayanthi Rao  287

Bibliography  323

Contributors  355

Index  357

Ann Laura Stoler

Nancy Rose Hunt

E. Valentine Daniel

Greg Grandin

Sharad Chari

John F. Collins

Ariella Azoulay

Gastón R. Gordillo

Joseph Masco

Vyjayanthi Rao

"Imperial Debris questions some of our deepest assumptions about violence and its residues. This astute, wide-ranging, and ambitious volume refocuses our attention on the incremental processes of ruination that are typically overlooked in favor of official ruins. The result is a major intervention in postcolonial and visual studies."—Rob Nixon, author of Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor

"Barely controlled rage is never far offstage as we are drawn into the continuing drama of empire's ruins—scarred landscapes, polluted places, shattered peoples, and the rot that remains. From sadistic torture and ruination of bodies and souls in the (Belgian) Congo to the lives of Sri Lankan 'coolie' estate workers analyzed in epic poetry, from the state’s attempt to patrimonialize impoverished citizens in contemporary Bahia to Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes and spirits in Gaza, this book forces a new, critical gaze on the ways that colonialism lives on in the present."—Richard Price, author of The Convict and the Colonel, Travels with Tooy, and Rainforest Warriors

Permission to Photocopy (coursepacks)

If you are requesting permission to photocopy material for classroom use, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at copyright.com;

If the Copyright Clearance Center cannot grant permission, you may request permission from our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).

Permission to Reprint

If you are requesting permission to reprint DUP material (journal or book selection) in another book or in any other format, contact our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).

Images/Art

Many images/art used in material copyrighted by Duke University Press are controlled, not by the Press, but by the owner of the image. Please check the credit line adjacent to the illustration, as well as the front and back matter of the book for a list of credits. You must obtain permission directly from the owner of the image. Occasionally, Duke University Press controls the rights to maps or other drawings. Please direct permission requests for these images to permissions@dukeupress.edu.
For book covers to accompany reviews, please contact the publicity department.

Subsidiary Rights/Foreign Translations

If you're interested in a Duke University Press book for subsidiary rights/translations, please contact permissions@dukeupress.edu. Include the book title/author, rights sought, and estimated print run.

Disability Requests

Instructions for requesting an electronic text on behalf of a student with disabilities are available here.

Rights & Permissions Contact Information

Email: permissions@dukeupress.edu

Email contact for coursepacks: asstpermissions@dukeupress.edu

Fax: 919-688-4574

Mail:
Duke University Press
Rights and Permissions
905 W. Main Street
Suite 18B
Durham, NC 27701

For all requests please include:

1. Author's name. If book has an editor that is different from the article author, include editor's name also.

2. Title of the journal article or book chapter and title of journal or title of book

3. Page numbers (if excerpting, provide specifics)

For coursepacks, please also note: The number of copies requested, the school and professor requesting

For reprints and subsidiary rights, please also note: Your volume title, publication date, publisher, print run, page count, rights sought