Overview

British India and Victorian Literary Culture extends current scholarship on the Victorian period with a wide-ranging and innovative analysis of the literature of British India. The book traces the development of British Indian literature from the early days of the nineteenth century through the Victorian period. Previously unstudied poems and essays drawn from the thriving periodicals culture of British India are examined alongside novels and travel-writing by authors including Emma Roberts, Philip Meadows Taylor and Rudyard Kipling. Key events and concerns of Victorian India the legacy of the Hastings impeachment, the Indian 'Mutiny', the sati controversy, the rise of Bengal nationalism - are re-assessed within a dual literary and political context, emphasising the engagement of British writers with canonical British literature (Scott, Byron) as well as the mythology and historiography of India and their own responses to their immediate surroundings. N Fhlathin examines representations of the experience of being in India, in chapters on the poetry and prose of exile, and the dynamics of consumption. She also analyses colonial representations of the landscape and societies of India itself, in chapters on the figure of the bandit / hero, female agency and self-sacrifice, and the use of historiography to enlist indigenous narratives in the project of Empire. Description and analysis of the literary marketplace and periodical press, both previously neglected Reassessment of some works of Kipling in the context of a long-standing literary tradition of British India New analysis of the interactions of metropolitan and colonial literary cultures, and the impact of canonical texts on peripheral marketplaces Examination of Victorian concepts of the colonial relationship in the light of both important writers of British India (Kipling, Meadow Taylor) and others previously unstudied Mire n Fhlathin is Associate Professor in English Literature at the University of Nottingham.

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9781474426039

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Reviews

In sum, ní Fhlathúin's work shows the complexities in British writers' per-ceptions of India, derived from their lived experiences in India, their knowledge of indigenous history, and their engagement with existing colonial discourses, literary tropes, and genres. By giving us a clear picture of how colonial litera-ture in British India is produced throughout the 19th century, her comprehensive study has already offered an impartial way of perceiving the Other.--Jingxuan Yi, University of Nottingham ""Partial Answers"" British India and Victorian Literary Culture is a thoroughly researched and insightful account of the emergence of an Anglo-Indian literary culture in the nineteenth century. Everyone interested in the history of British India will find this book illuminating.--Indiana University ""Patrick Brantlinger""

"In sum, n� Fhlath�in's work shows the complexities in British writers' per-ceptions of India, derived from their lived experiences in India, their knowledge of indigenous history, and their engagement with existing colonial discourses, literary tropes, and genres. By giving us a clear picture of how colonial litera-ture in British India is produced throughout the 19th century, her comprehensive study has already offered an impartial way of perceiving the Other.--Jingxuan Yi, University of Nottingham ""Partial Answers"" British India and Victorian Literary Culture is a thoroughly researched and insightful account of the emergence of an Anglo-Indian literary culture in the nineteenth century. Everyone interested in the history of British India will find this book illuminating.--Indiana University ""Patrick Brantlinger"""

Author Information

Máire ni Fhlathúin is a Lecturer in English Studies at the University of Nottingham.

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