Islam, Women, and Imperial Administration: Encounters and Antagonisms between British and Colonial Authors in the Victorian Press

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

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Abstract

The above quote by Çelik assumes several points that have dominated studies of orientalist discourses. One is the dichotomous nature of this discourse between the colonial power and the colonized peoples. Another is that entry of the colonized speaker into this discourse is an entry as ‘Other’, or as an alterity, into the discourse. In this paper I will interrogate and explore these assumptions through several contentious debates between British and Indian authors in the Victorian press. These exchanges defy a simple dichotomy between a ‘valorized culture’ and a valorized alterity; all the Indian authors I will examine claim authority/identity as British, and as ‘native’. Neither British nor ‘other’ is monolithic, and scholars following in the wake of Edward Said’s landmark study have increasingly investigated these interstices and multiplicities to question the identity/alterity dichotomy. Many argue that nations are heterotopias in which identities blend or overlap, crossing the discourse with divergent views and political antagonisms.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationPalgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages195-212
Number of pages18
DOIs
StatePublished - 2005

Publication series

NamePalgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture
ISSN (Print)2634-6494
ISSN (Electronic)2634-6508

Keywords

  • British Nation
  • British Reader
  • British Rule
  • Native Culture
  • Nineteenth Century

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • History
  • Literature and Literary Theory

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