Victorian Literature and Postcolonial Studies

by Patrick Brantlinger

Overview

This book surveys the impact of the British Empire on nineteenth-century British literature from a postcolonial perspective. It explains both pro-imperialist themes and attitudes in works by major Victorian authors, and also points of resistance to and criticisms of the Empire such as abolitionism, as well as the first stirrings of nationalism in India and elsewhere.Using nineteenth-century literary works as illustrations, it analyzes several major debates, central to imperial and postcolonial studies, about imperial historiography and Marxism, gender and race, Orientalism, mimicry, and subalternity and representation. And it provides an in-depth examination of works by several major Victorian authors-Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Disraeli, Tennyson, Yeats, Kipling, and Conrad among them - in the imperial context. Key Features:*Links literary texts to debates in postcolonial studies*Discusses works not included in standard literary histories*Provides in-depth discussions and comparisons of major authors: Disraeli and George Eliot; Dickens and Charlotte Brontë; Tennsyon and Yeats*Provides a guide to further reading and a timeline

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748633043
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	02/25/2009
Series:	Postcolonial Literary Studies
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Patrick Brantlinger is James Rudy Professor of English and Victorian Studies (Emeritus) at Indiana University. He is the author or editor of 13 books including Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1900 (Cornell UniversityPress, 1988), Dark Vanishings: Nineteenth-Century Discourse about the Extinction of Primitive Races (Cornell UniversityPress, 2003), and The Blackwell Companion to the Victorian Novel (Blackwell Publishers, 2002), edited with William Thesing.

Table of Contents

Series Editors' Preface vii

Acknowledgments viii

Timeline ix

1 Exploring the Terrain 1

Introduction: Nineteenth-century Literature and Imperialism 1

Slavery and Empire in Romantic and Early Victorian Literature 10

The Empire Cleans Up Its Act 18

Emigration Narratives 24

Thrilling Adventures 30

Race and Character 35

Imperial Gothic 45

2 Debates 55

Imperial Historiography, Marxism, and Postcolonialism 55

Gender, Sexuality, and Race 63

Orientalism(s) 72

'Mimicry' versus 'Going Native' 82

Can Subalterns Speak? 90

3 Case Studies 105

Homecomings 106

Tennyson, Yeats, and Celticism 114

Oriental Desires and Imperial Boys: Romancing India 124

Imperial Boys: Romancing Africa 134

Coda 147

Primary Sources 151

Secondary Sources 158

Further Reading 172

Index 175

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Patrick Brantlinger's beautifully executed little masterpiece, a volume that manages in less than 200 pages to survey and analyze one of the more complicated issues in our discipline: the relationship between Victorian imperialism and the response it produced in the era of decolonization

Edinburgh University Press

Editorial Reviews

What Brantlinger's book provides is a handy roadmap to the affiliations between an important branch of contemporary thought and the Victorian traditions and histories that have informed it. It is sure to become a standard text in this vital area of research.

Victorian Studies - Robert D. Aguirre

What Brantlinger's book provides is a handy roadmap to the affiliations between an important branch of contemporary thought and the Victorian traditions and histories that have informed it. It is sure to become a standard text in this vital area of research.

— Robert D. Aguirre

Victorian Studies

Begins with a wide-ranging, elegantly syynthesised, and historically nuanced overview of the multifarious impact of Empire on nineteenth-century, literature, historiography and cultural commentary. ... Sure to invite scholars to engage .. and further develop these vital and unfinished areas of research.

Wasafiri - Anita Rupprecht

With clarity and economy, a broad vista of political, socio-cultural and geographical factors are viewed, combining perspectives on the imperial source material with the critiques offered by postcolonial reassessments – aesthetic and ethical. Brantlinger's longstanding scholarly expertise in this area is adroitly condensed into a mere 180 pages ... this concise yet considerable scope is the work's strength and should see it become a necessary guide to an almost unmanageably complex area.

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