Colonial Strangers: Women Writing the End of the British EmpireColonial Strangers revolutionizes modern British literary studies by showing how our interpretations of the postcolonial must confront World War II and the Holocaust. Phyllis Lassner's analysis reveals how writers such as Muriel Spark, Olivia Manning, Rumer Godden, Phyllis Bottome, Elspeth Huxley, and Zadie Smith insist that World War II is critical to understanding how and why the British Empire had to end. Drawing on memoirs, fiction, reportage, and film adaptations, Colonial Strangers explores the critical perspectives of writers who correct prevailing stereotypes of British women as agents of imperialism. They also question their own participation in British claims of moral righteousness and British politics of cultural exploitation. These authors take center stage in debates about connections between the racist ideologies of the Third Reich and the British Empire. Colonial Strangers reveals how the literary responses of key artists represent not only compelling reading, but also a necessary intervention in colonial and postcolonial debates and the canons of modern British fiction. |
Contents
Strangers at the Gates The Middle East | 17 |
Strangers in a Walled Garden Rumer Goddens AngloIndia | 70 |
Red Strangers Elspeth Huxleys Africa | 118 |
Island Strangers Phyllis Shand Allfrey and Phyllis Bottome | 160 |
Conclusion | 190 |
Notes | 203 |
| 223 | |
| 237 | |
Common terms and phrases
Allfrey Allfrey's Anglo-Indian anticolonial Arab Barbara becomes black Africans Black Narcissus Bottome's Britain British colonial British Empire British women writers characters colo colonial colonial relations colonial woman confrontation consciousness construction create critique cultural depicts despite destabilized discourse Elspeth Huxley end of Empire English Ethel Mannin European exile exploitation exposes fate fiction film Gender Harriet's Holocaust Huxley's hybrid identity ideology imagination imperial Indian indigenous integrity island Jewish Jews Kenya Kikuyu London Louise Mandelbaum Gate Manning's Mau Mau Middle East Miss Bohun mocks modern moral murder Muriel Spark myth narrative narrator nation native Nazi neocolonial nial novel Olivia oppression Orchid House Palestine Palestinian Phyllis Bottome Phyllis Shand Phyllis Shand Allfrey plot political position presence questions racial racism relationship represents resistance responsibility role romantic Rumer Godden self-determination settler sexual Shila social Sophie Sophie's story tensions tion tradition University Press victims vision voice World World War II writing
Popular passages
Page 12 - Bhabha in his post-colonial theory of culture. ...[Cjolonial mimicry is the desire for a reformed, recognizable Other, as a subject of a difference that is almost the same, but not quite. Which is to say, that the discourse of mimicry is constructed around an ambivalence; in order to be effective, mimicry must continually produce its slippage, its excess, its difference.