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...history/identity, certain of concern, or even sympathy by the English towards the American Indian. This paper examines the travel narratives of nineteenth century English authors for their criticism of the self-righteous violence and instability of Americans portrayed through the near genocide of an entire people. After the separation between England and an independent America, in the final years of the extermination and removal of the Native Americans, when American accounts of barbaric Indians were portrayed in newspapers and popular magazines, English travel accounts reveal a deliberate commiseration for the American Indian. This paper analyses a variety of these sympathetic British works, specifically the travel narratives of Fanny Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans, Fanny Kemble's Journals, Charles Dickens in his American Notes for General Circulation, Robert Louis Stevenson in Across the Plains, and Rudyard Kipling in American Notes. It is important to look to these British accounts, not only to see another nation's disgust for American violence and greed to the point of near extermination, but because sympathy for the American Indian's plight was a rare voice of exception.
The Gypsies and the Colonized Other in Jane Austen's Emma. Melissa Cole, Northern Michigan University, Department of English, Marquette, MI 49855
In his article "The Woman, the Gypsies and England: Harriet Smith's National Role" Michael Kramp examines the scene in which Harriet encounter's the Gypsies in Jane Austen's Emma. He suggests that Harriet's "national importance" as the cultural "reproducer" of the English national identity is emphasized after her encounter with the Gypsies. In this paper I suggest that if the national identity must be reasserted in England it is not only due to the presence of the Gypsies or the "post French-Revolution modernization." It is also due to the ever increasing British Empire. Austen's portrayal of the colonized other is virtually absent and it is in this absence that the most revealing relationship with the other is perceived. Harriet's encounter with the Gypsies and the character of Jane Fairfax both suggest the proximity and the threat of the colonized other to English culture. This paper will argue that by limiting his discussion of the Gypsy encounter to its nationalizing affect on Harriet, Kramp has disregarded the most important implication of their presence, which is the English movement into the world of the Other and in turn the Other's movement into the English world.
Monstrous Colonizers: Science and Gothic Intervention in H. Rider Haggard's She. Angela M. Thum, University of Notre Dame, Department of English, Notre Dame, IN 46556
Post-colonial critics have recognized that the ideology of imperialism, especially as represented by late nineteenth-century novelists, is far from seamless. In She, H. Rider Haggard examines the imperial aims of British scientists. Haggard explores the attempts, by his contemporaries, to turn their empire into a peaceful empire of influence. His novel shows that the kind of empire the British wish to maintain is not possible without the use of violent force. Haggard's novel displays strong anxieties about the morality of an empire, which can only be controlled through force. Critics have recognized Haggard's unconscious anxieties about the demise of an empire that had reached its height (Brantlinger 227-53). But Haggard's novel explores, more extensively than critics have recognized, both the conflicts inherent in the imperial project itself, and internal criticisms about the implementation of imperial policies. The scientific, approach to empire building and control clearly does not work, within the framework of the novel. Once the colonizing scientists and explorers are faced by the fact that knowledge control is insufficient in controlling the empire, they will be seduced by the power they can only attain through violence and coercion.
Thrust Aside in Order to Live: The Foggy Borders of Abjection in Bleak House. Jane Asher, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309
Charles Dickens's Bleak House continuously compares the aristocracy and the impoverished to construct the text on many levels. The text addresses the varying issues of cleanliness and order and how such elements link an individual to their social status and environment. Through analysis of Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection and the assistance of Elizabeth Grosz's "The Body of Signification," this paper will examine the disturbance of "identity, system, [and] order" that occurs through Esther's connection with the brickmaker's family (Kristeva 4). It will look at the instances in which "'proper' sociality and subjectivity are based on the expulsion or exclusion of the improper, the unclean," disorder, and "modes of corporality" presenting themselves as "unacceptable" and "anti-social" (Grosz 88). The "clean" housekeeper is drawn to the space of abjection and to the abject family--unclean, unsocial, and unacceptable. Esther's link to their space of abjection and to the ultimate abject, the corpse, flags the possibility of her alternative existence as a dead child and displays the impossibility of distinct margins that operate within the walls of abjection.
Virgin or Whore? The Spectrum of Women in Renaissance Drama. Mindy R. Berlin, Andrews University, Department of English, Berrien Center, MI 49102
During the early modern period many conduct books, tracts, pamphlets, and sermons were written about female behavior. The topics in these writings ranged from marriage and the duties of a wife to appropriate dress and public behavior. Most of this literature eventually alluded to or had the underlying theme that there were two kinds of women in the world: chaste, silent, and obedient "virgins," who were considered good, or women who were not virtuous, outspoken, and disobedient "whores," who were labeled evil. However this paper argues that Renaissance drama shows a larger spectrum of women than simply good virgin and bad whore. Every spectrum needs to have identifying beginning and end points to measure the other points of the spectrum. For this spectrum the two prominent female characters from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Tamora, queen of the Goths, and Titus' daughter Lavinia were chosen. These two characters embody the two kinds of women in Renaissance social structure. For this study the female characters from Ben Jonson's...
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