{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0816653577?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0816653577","authors":["Ananya Jahanara Kabir"],"book_id":"9780816653577","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/territory-of-desire-9780816653577","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780816653577.jpg?v=7fa37511101ac287","description":"Moves beyond traditional analysis to understand the conflict over Kashmir A result of territorial disputes between India and Pakistan since 1947, exacerbated by armed freedom movements since 1989, the ongoing conflict over Kashmir is consistently in the news. Taking a unique multidisciplinary approach, Territory of Desire asks how, and why, Kashmir came to be so intensely desired within Indian, Pakistani, and Kashmiri nationalistic imaginations. Literary historian Ananya Jahanara Kabir finds an answer to this question in the Valley of Kashmir’s repeated portrayal as a “special” place and the missing piece of Pakistan and India. Analyzing the conversion of natural beauty into collective desire—through photography, literature, cinema, art, and souvenir production—Kabir exposes the links between colonialism, modernity, and conflict within the postcolonial nation. Representations of Kashmir as a space of desire emerge in contemporary film, colonial “taming” of the valley through nineteenth-century colonialist travelogues, the fetishization of traditional Kashmiri handicrafts like papier maché, and Pandit and Muslim religious revivalisms in the region. Linking a violent modernity to the fantasies of nationhood, Kabir proposes nonmilitaristic ways in which such desire may be overcome. In doing so she offers an innovative approach to complex and protracted conflict and, ultimately, its resolution.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780816653577","publication_date":"20090312","publisher":"University of Minnesota Press","slug":"territory-of-desire","subtitle":"Representing the Valley of Kashmir","title":"Territory of Desire"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"LIT008020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Indic Literary Criticism","score":0.7621,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV003040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"India & South Asia Travel","score":0.6982,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004220","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Middle Eastern Lit Crit","score":0.6843,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"LIT008020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Indic Literary Criticism","score":0.7621,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV003040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"India & South Asia Travel","score":0.6982,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004220","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Middle Eastern Lit Crit","score":0.6843,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS017000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Indian & South Asian History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LIT008020","confidence_band":"high","label":"Indic Literary Criticism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Indic Literary Criticism","score":0.7621,"slug":"indic-literary-criticism"},{"label":"India & South Asia Travel","score":0.6982,"slug":"india-south-asia-travel"},{"label":"Middle Eastern Lit Crit","score":0.6843,"slug":"middle-eastern-lit-crit"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in how Kashmir is represented in national imaginations","Readers exploring colonialism, modernity, and conflict in Kashmir"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Sunil Sharma"],"book_id":"9780674975859","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780674975859.jpg?v=64578062d3863eac","score":0.6704,"title":"Mughal Arcadia","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780674975859"},{"authors":["Tapan Kumar Ghosh","Sisir Kumar Chatterjee"],"book_id":"9781438481449","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781438481449.jpg?v=37f5af2ebe866785","score":0.6479,"title":"The World of Agha Shahid Ali","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781438481449"},{"authors":["Jennifer Bradbury"],"book_id":"9781534439498","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781534439498.jpg?v=0bc7cbca9189a15b","score":0.6415,"title":"A Moment Comes","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781534439498"},{"authors":["Gal Gvili"],"book_id":"9780231205719","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780231205719.jpg?v=896f730e914af6f3","score":0.6387,"title":"Imagining India in Modern China","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780231205719"},{"authors":["Rabindranath Tagore"],"book_id":"9788175993105","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9788175993105.jpg?v=4dd119774c53c77d","score":0.6367,"title":"Nationalism","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9788175993105"},{"authors":["Saikat Majumdar"],"book_id":"9780231156943","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780231156943.jpg?v=581d6ca5fce70caf","score":0.6341,"title":"Prose of the World","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780231156943"},{"authors":["Christine Chitnis"],"book_id":"9780525577096","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780525577096.jpg?v=956416f1d5e5a122","score":0.6334,"title":"Patterns of India","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780525577096"},{"authors":["Louise Brown"],"book_id":"9780060740436","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060740436.jpg?v=4ccde05cb3700c13","score":0.6332,"title":"The Dancing Girls of Lahore","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780060740436"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Themes: Kashmir and national imagination, Colonialism and modernity, Representation and conflict.","Reading lane: Indic Literary Criticism and India & South Asia Travel.","Publisher: University of Minnesota Press."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.91,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in how Kashmir is represented in national imaginations","Readers exploring colonialism, modernity, and conflict in Kashmir"],"themes":["Kashmir and national imagination","Colonialism and modernity","Representation and conflict"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":8,"goodreads_ratings_count":15,"goodreads_reviews_count":1,"quality_score":0.8347}}