Humanities & Social Sciences
Description
Works of travel have been the subject of increasingly sophisticated studies in recent years. This book undermines the conviction with which nineteenth-century British writers talked about darkest Africa. It places the works of travel within the rapidly developing dynamic of Victorian imperialism. Images of Abyssinia and the means of communicating those images changed in response to social developments in Britain. As bourgeois values became increasingly important in the nineteenth century and technology advanced, the distance between the consumer and the product were justified by the scorn of African ways of eating. The book argues that the ambiguities and ambivalence of the travellers are revealed in their relation to a range of objects and commodities mentioned in narratives. For instance, beads occupy the dual role of currency and commodity. The book deals with Henry Morton Stanley's expedition to relieve Emin Pasha, and attempts to prove that racial representations are in large part determined by the cultural conditions of the traveller's society. By looking at Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, it argues that the text is best read as what it purports to be: a kind of travel narrative. Only when it is seen as such and is regarded in the context of the fin de siecle can one begin to appreciate both the extent and the limitations of Conrad's innovativeness.
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Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo [DRC], Congo, Republic of the, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Hongkong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, China, Macedonia [FYROM], Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Cyprus, Palestine, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan
Endorsements
This book shows how the writings of travellers in Africa during the era of Victorian exploration tell us more about nineteenth-century Britain than about Africa. The author places the narratives in their historical an cultural context, and examines how racial images may be affected by social change and literary form. Through detailed considerations of accounts of African eating habits, of the reported effects of Africa upon the objects the travellers carried with them, and of Stanley's controversial Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, depp anxieties over British social change and cultural identity are exposed. The author argues that such concerns have to be recognised in any discussion on the construction and transmission of racial stereotypes. The book closes with a consideration of Conrad's Heart of Darkness as a travel narrative and contrasts Marlow's Congo with Stanley's.
Reviews
This book shows how the writings of travellers in Africa during the era of Victorian exploration tell us more about nineteenth-century Britain than about Africa. The author places the narratives in their historical an cultural context, and examines how racial images may be affected by social change and literary form. Through detailed considerations of accounts of African eating habits, of the reported effects of Africa upon the objects the travellers carried with them, and of Stanley's controversial Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, depp anxieties over British social change and cultural identity are exposed. The author argues that such concerns have to be recognised in any discussion on the construction and transmission of racial stereotypes. The book closes with a consideration of Conrad's Heart of Darkness as a travel narrative and contrasts Marlow's Congo with Stanley's.
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View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Manchester University Press
- Publication Date March 2017
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9781526123725 / 152612372X
- Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
- FormatWeb PDF
- ReadershipGeneral/trade; College/higher education; Professional and scholarly
- Publish StatusPublished
- Biblio NotesDerived from Proprietary 4578
- SeriesStudies in Imperialism
- Reference Code10317
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