Rule Britannia : : Women, Empire, and Victorian Writing / / Deirdre David.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Archive Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: David, Deirdre,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©1995
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.) :; 7 halftones

Deirdre David here explores women's role in the literature of the colonial and imperial British nation, both as writers and as subjects of representation.David's inquiry juxtaposes the parliamentary speeches of Thomas Macaulay and the private letters of Emily Eden, a trial in Calcutta and the missionary literature of Victorian women, writing about thuggee and emigration to Australia. David shows how, in these texts and in novels such as Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens's Dombey and Son, Wilkie Collins's Moonstone, and H. Rider Haggard's She, the historical and symbolic roles of Victorian women were linked to the British enterprise abroad.Rule Britannia traces this connection from the early nineteenth-century nostalgia for masculine adventure to later patriarchal anxieties about female cultural assertiveness. Missionary, governess, and moral ideal, promoting sacrifice for the good of the empire—such figures come into sharp relief as David discusses debates over English education in India, class conflicts sparked by colonization, and patriarchal responses to fears about feminism and race degeneration. In conclusion, she reveals how Victorian women, as writers and symbols of colonization, served as critics of empire.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ILLUSTRATIONS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION. Tropical Fruit in Brixton -- CHAPTER ONE. The Invasion of Empire: Thomas Macaulay and Emily Eden Go to India -- CHAPTER TWO. The Heart of the Empire: Little Nell and Florence Dombey Do Their Bit -- CHAPTER THREE. The Governess of Empire: Jane Eyre Takes Care of India and Jamaica -- CHAPTER FOUR. Babu Kalicharan Banerjee Puts His Arm around Miss Mary Pigot -- CHAPTER FIVE. Laboring for the Empire: Old Patriarchy and New Imperialism in Tennyson and H. Rider Haggard -- CONCLUSION. "Material Interest": Emilia Gould Sums It Up -- Works Cited -- Index