Saikat Majumdar is Professor of English & Creative Writing at Ashoka University, India. He is the author of a monograph, Prose of the World (2013) and five novels, including The Firebird/Play House (2015/2017), and The Remains of the Body (2024); and the co-editor of The Critic as Amateur (Bloomsbury, 2019).

• Acknowledgements1. The colonial map of misreading2. Poor reading, weak theory3. Autodidactic nation 4. Books, roots, pasts5. The light and shadow of Empire6. The violence of humanistic educationNotesBibliographyIndex

The Amateur makes a fascinating case for the importance of reading literature as central to the experience of self-making, especially in cases where that reading is unschooled or haphazardly schooled. … Readers working on amateurs, reading cultures and postcolonial literature should all find something useful in this inspiringly complex yet readable book.

Saikat Majumdar is Professor of English & Creative Writing at Ashoka University, India. He is the author of a monograph, Prose of the World (2013) and five novels, including The Firebird/Play House (2015/2017), and The Remains of the Body (2024); and the co-editor of The Critic as Amateur (Bloomsbury, 2019).

• Acknowledgements1. The colonial map of misreading2. Poor reading, weak theory3. Autodidactic nation 4. Books, roots, pasts5. The light and shadow of Empire6. The violence of humanistic educationNotesBibliographyIndex

The Amateur makes a fascinating case for the importance of reading literature as central to the experience of self-making, especially in cases where that reading is unschooled or haphazardly schooled. … Readers working on amateurs, reading cultures and postcolonial literature should all find something useful in this inspiringly complex yet readable book.

Saikat Majumdar is Professor of English & Creative Writing at Ashoka University, India. He is the author of a monograph, Prose of the World (2013) and five novels, including The Firebird/Play House (2015/2017), and The Remains of the Body (2024); and the co-editor of The Critic as Amateur (Bloomsbury, 2019).

• Acknowledgements1. The colonial map of misreading2. Poor reading, weak theory3. Autodidactic nation 4. Books, roots, pasts5. The light and shadow of Empire6. The violence of humanistic educationNotesBibliographyIndex

The Amateur makes a fascinating case for the importance of reading literature as central to the experience of self-making, especially in cases where that reading is unschooled or haphazardly schooled. … Readers working on amateurs, reading cultures and postcolonial literature should all find something useful in this inspiringly complex yet readable book.