The Fictions of Empire
The Imperial Adventure in Fiction and Film
The Fictions of Empire
The Imperial Adventure in Fiction and Film
Corrigan, A short Guide to Writing about Film
Conrad, Lord Jim
Forester, Passage to India (Penguin ISBN-10: 014144116X)
H Rider Haggard, “She” in Three Adventure Novels (Dover)
Bram Stoker, Dracula (Penguin)
Robert Louis Stevenson, “Ebb Tide” in South Sea Tales
Films
Gunga Din (1939)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Mummy (1932) or The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
The Proposition (2005)
Web Resources:
www.victorianweb.org, especially
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/
http://www.britishempire.co.uk/index.htm
http://www.britishempire.co.uk/timeline/time
line.htm
The University of Florida Digital Collection,
Juvenile Fiction
How does a small Island of a few million control an Empire of 500 million?
I. What is Imperialism? What is Colonization (v. post-colonialization)?
II. Expanse of British Empire:
Africa, India, East, Australia
III. Beginnings: the construction of otherness. (hottentot, savages, etc…)
Africa: unlike the myth of backwardness, Africa was advanced and organized: empires of Ghana (11 th C), Mali
(13th), Songhni (14th)
1441: First Portuguese Traders
1560: John Hawkins “brought” hundreds of people back from west Africa
1567: Queen Elizabeth invests in Hawkins (cousin of Francis Drake)
1558: Elizabeth comes to power in turbulent time.
General Shift to a capitalist system with the decline of aristocracy and rise of the mercantile class
(titles can be bought. This leads to the need to make fortune, a sense of adventure.)
Patrilinear system
1600: East Indian Company given a grant for all trade w/the orient. Established trading ports over the century
1600s: unsuccessful use of American Natives and Poor English and Irish as laborers in America and Carribean (sugar,
tobacco, etc)
Rise of Triangular Trade
1663 the “Company of Royal Adventurers of England” established, pointing to both expansion and sanctioned slavery
1721: Walpole becomes prime minister, implements a policy of commercial expansion
1750: as the Mughal empire disintegrated, The EIC became more involved with Indian politics, establishing Indian rulers of
independent states willing to trade w/the British.
Robert Clive’s, commander of the “East India Co. Army” establishes British-friendly “puppet rule.”
EIC’s rule became formal in 1765 when the Mughal emperor conceded to him (Bengal)…
1750-1800: East Indian Trading Company spreads throughout the east, Tea becomes a major trade
Company run governments became increasingly involved in politics, wars, and expansion. Never condoned at home, this
became the basis of a the new Britain ruled India, which, through war and skirmish, spread to Afghanistan.
1788: First convict ships arrive at Botany Bay; African Association formed to explore the interior of Africa
1857: Indian Mutinies result in the dissolution of the EIC and British rule of India.
1876: Victoria becomes Empress of India
Conclusion: Imperialism is an ideology, based upon national identity, economics, commerce,
religion, science, industry, technology.
Imperialist Ideology is Bought and Sold, both at home and abroad
Examples:
Conclusion: Imperialism is an ideology, based upon national identity, economics, commerce,
religion, science, industry, technology.
Imperialist Ideology is Bought and Sold, both at home and abroad
Examples: The Great Exhibition of 1851
1) Imperialism as a Commodity  superabundance
Control over chaos
2) Imperialism as visual … and organized.
Enlightenment mindset  similar to genus / species
Darwin’s Origin of Species
3) Race and Otherness as organized visually
“Construction of the Other”
4) Britishness as a commodity of world improvement….
The Birth of Civilization: a Message from the Sea
The consumption of soap: a measure of the wealth, civilization, health and purity of the people
The first step towards lightening
THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN is
through teaching the virtues of
cleanliness.
PEARS SOAP is a potent factor in
brightening the dark corners of
the earth as civilization advances,
while amongst the cultured of all
nations it holds the highest place
– it is the idea toilet soap.
Imperialism as a commodity : Colonization as commercially driven
The Opium War
Imperialism as a commodity : Colonization as commercially driven
The Opium War
How do you “Sell Imperialism?”
Next Week, Read Kipling’s “Wee Willie Winkie” and the Boy’s Brigade
Gift Book