Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688-1804
In Tropicopolitans Srinivas Aravamudan reconstructs the colonial imagination of the eighteenth century. By exploring representations of peoples and cultures subjected to colonial discourse, he makes a case for the agency-or the capacity to resist domination-of those oppressed. Aravamudan's analysis of texts that accompanied European commercial and imperial expansion from the Glorious Revolution through the French Revolution reveals the development of anticolonial consciousness prior to the nineteenth century.
"Tropicalization" is the central metaphor of this analysis, a term that incorporates both the construction of various dynamic tropes by which the colonized are viewed and the site of the study, primarily the tropics. Tropicopolitans, then, are those people who bear and resist the representations of colonialist discourse. In readings that expose new relationships between literary representation and colonialism in the eighteenth century, Aravamudan considers such texts as Behn's Oroonoko, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Captain Singleton, Addison's Cato, and Swift's Gulliver's Travels and The Drapier's Letters. He extends his argument to include analyses of Johnson's Rasselas, Beckford's Vathek, Montagu's travel letters, Equiano's autobiography, Burke's political and aesthetic writings, and Abbé de Raynal's Histoire des deux Indes. Offering a radical approach to literary history, this study provides new mechanisms for understanding the development of anticolonial agency.
Introducing eighteenth-century studies to a postcolonial hermeneutics, Tropicopolitans will interest scholars engaged in postcolonial studies, eighteenth-century literature, and literary theory.

"1112033365"
Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688-1804
In Tropicopolitans Srinivas Aravamudan reconstructs the colonial imagination of the eighteenth century. By exploring representations of peoples and cultures subjected to colonial discourse, he makes a case for the agency-or the capacity to resist domination-of those oppressed. Aravamudan's analysis of texts that accompanied European commercial and imperial expansion from the Glorious Revolution through the French Revolution reveals the development of anticolonial consciousness prior to the nineteenth century.
"Tropicalization" is the central metaphor of this analysis, a term that incorporates both the construction of various dynamic tropes by which the colonized are viewed and the site of the study, primarily the tropics. Tropicopolitans, then, are those people who bear and resist the representations of colonialist discourse. In readings that expose new relationships between literary representation and colonialism in the eighteenth century, Aravamudan considers such texts as Behn's Oroonoko, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Captain Singleton, Addison's Cato, and Swift's Gulliver's Travels and The Drapier's Letters. He extends his argument to include analyses of Johnson's Rasselas, Beckford's Vathek, Montagu's travel letters, Equiano's autobiography, Burke's political and aesthetic writings, and Abbé de Raynal's Histoire des deux Indes. Offering a radical approach to literary history, this study provides new mechanisms for understanding the development of anticolonial agency.
Introducing eighteenth-century studies to a postcolonial hermeneutics, Tropicopolitans will interest scholars engaged in postcolonial studies, eighteenth-century literature, and literary theory.

31.95 In Stock
Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688-1804

Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688-1804

by Srinivas Aravamudan
Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688-1804

Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688-1804

by Srinivas Aravamudan

Paperback(New Edition)

$31.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

In Tropicopolitans Srinivas Aravamudan reconstructs the colonial imagination of the eighteenth century. By exploring representations of peoples and cultures subjected to colonial discourse, he makes a case for the agency-or the capacity to resist domination-of those oppressed. Aravamudan's analysis of texts that accompanied European commercial and imperial expansion from the Glorious Revolution through the French Revolution reveals the development of anticolonial consciousness prior to the nineteenth century.
"Tropicalization" is the central metaphor of this analysis, a term that incorporates both the construction of various dynamic tropes by which the colonized are viewed and the site of the study, primarily the tropics. Tropicopolitans, then, are those people who bear and resist the representations of colonialist discourse. In readings that expose new relationships between literary representation and colonialism in the eighteenth century, Aravamudan considers such texts as Behn's Oroonoko, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Captain Singleton, Addison's Cato, and Swift's Gulliver's Travels and The Drapier's Letters. He extends his argument to include analyses of Johnson's Rasselas, Beckford's Vathek, Montagu's travel letters, Equiano's autobiography, Burke's political and aesthetic writings, and Abbé de Raynal's Histoire des deux Indes. Offering a radical approach to literary history, this study provides new mechanisms for understanding the development of anticolonial agency.
Introducing eighteenth-century studies to a postcolonial hermeneutics, Tropicopolitans will interest scholars engaged in postcolonial studies, eighteenth-century literature, and literary theory.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780822323150
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication date: 05/17/1999
Series: Post-Contemporary Interventions Series
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 438
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.89(d)
Lexile: 1540L (what's this?)

About the Author

Srinivas Aravamudan is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Washington.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Virtualizations

1. Petting Oroonoko

2. Piratical Accounts

3. The Stoic's Voice

Levantinizations

4. Lady Mary in the Hamman

5. The Despotic Eye and the Oriental Sublime

Nationalizations

6. Equiano and the Politics of Literacy

7. Tropicalizing the Englightenment

Conclusion

Notes

Index
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews