Melodramatic imperial writing : from the Sepoy Rebellion to Cecil Rhodes / Neil Hultgren.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hultgren, Neil.

Series:

Series in Victorian studies Melodramatic imperial writing

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English prose literature--History and criticism.

English prose literature.

Melodrama, English--History and criticism.

Melodrama, English.

Literature and society--England--History.

Literature and society.

Imperialism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Melodrama, as an aesthetic, has long been criticized for its reliance on improbable situations and overwhelming emotion. These very aspects, however, made it a useful and appealing literary mode for British imperial propagandists in the late nineteenth century. Though stage melodrama may have been declining in prominence, the melodramatic style influenced many late-Victorian genres outside of the theater-for example, imperialist ballads, detective novels, travel narratives, and romances-and developed a complicated relationship with British imperial discourse. Melodramatic Imperial Writing: From the Sepoy Rebellion to Cecil Rhodes locates melodrama within a new and considerably more complicated history of British imperialism: beyond its use in constructing imperialist fantasies or supporting unjust policies, the melodramatic style also enabled writers to upset narratives of British imperial destiny or racial superiority. This book examines works by both canonical and lesser-known authors writing after the Sepoy Rebellion, including Wilkie Collins, Marie Corelli, Charles Dickens, H. Rider Haggard, W. E. Henley, Rudyard Kipling, Olive Schreiner, and Robert Louis Stevenson, and encompasses representations of British imperialism from India, to South Africa and the South Seas"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Title

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction "At Last!" and "Too Late!"

Part One Melodrama as Plot

One Imperial Melodrama after the Sepoy Rebellion

Two Romance

or, Melodrama and the Adventure of History

Part Two Melodrama as Aestheticized Feeling

Three Imperialist Poetry, Aestheticism, and Melodrama's Man of Action

Four Stevenson's Melodramatic Anthropology

Part Three Melodrama as Distant Homeland

Five Olive Schreiner and the Melodrama of the Karoo

Conclusion Pirates and Spies

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780821444832

0821444832

OCLC:

870646808