Jane Austen and Empire

An Outpost of Progress

Said, Jane Austen and Empire

Methode van Said

“(…) there is no way of doing such readings as mine, no way of understanding the “structure of attitude and reference” except by working through the novel.”

John Stuart Mill: "The sacred duties which civilized nations owe to the independence and nationality of each other, are not binding towards those to whom nationality and independence are certain evil, or at best a questionable good."

Joseph Conrad's An Outpost of Progress (?)

Jane Austen and Empire

Titel: 'Outpost of Progress', impliceert dit vooruitgang door kolonisatie?

Heropvoeding in Africa?

“In the centre of Africa they made acquaintance of Richelieu and D’Artagnan, of Hawk’s eye and father Goriot, and of many other people. (…) The accounts of crime filled them with indignation, while tender or pathetic passages moved them deeply.”

“Society, not from any tenderness, but because its strange needs, had taken care of those two men, forbidding them all independent thought, all initiative, all departure from routine: and forbidding it under pain and death. They could only live in the condition of being machines. And now, released from the fostering care of men with pins behind their ears, or men with gold lace on their sleeves, they were like those lifelong prisoners who, liberated after many years, do not know what to make of their freedom.”

Enkele benamingen

“That print discussed what is was pleased to call ‘Our Colonial Expansion’ in high-flown language. It spoke much of the rights and duties of civilization, of the sacredness of bringing light and faith and commerce to the dark places of the earth.”

“Couldn’t make cavalry men out of them”

“Savages”

“Those workmen”

“Two white men”

“The niggers”

• Humanistische ideeen naast imperialisme
• Mansfield park: verkenning van effect van domestische controle op koloniale macht
• Domestische welvaart is afhankelijk van koloniale economie

• Sir Thomas vertrekt naar Antigua om orde op zaken te stellen; Fanny poogt moreel kompas te vormen voor chaotisch huishouden
• Fanny's overgang van kleine, onoverzichtelijke ruimte (haar oude huis) naar ruimere, gecontroleerdere omgeving spiegelt de koloniale uitbreiding van Engeland
• Fanny's terugkeer naar oude huis om vervolgens controle te krijgen over Mansfield spiegelt Sir Thomas' reis naar Antigua om orde op zaken te stellen, om hetzelfde te doen bij terugkeer
• Controle over Mansfield Park is controle over kolonies
• Rijkdom kolonies zorgt voor innerlijke rust van bewoners van Mansfield Park

"I think of such a reading as completing or complementing others, not discounting or displacing them."

Is de ene kritiek waardevoller dan de andere?

Evolutie koloniale doelen

• Romeins, Spaans, Portugees: gericht op plunderen van rijkdom
• Frans, Engels: gericht op langetermijn economische winstgevendheid
• Kolonies zijn geen land maar landerij

Discussie

Is er sprake van rascime, ironie of tijdsgeest

in An Outpost of Progress?

Jane Austen and Empire

1993

1897

1492

1707

1814

Edward Said

Mansfield Park

Wie is Fanny Price?

Wie is sir Thomas?

Wat hebben zij met

elkaar te maken?

Inhoud

Punten in Barry's Beginning Theory

Edward Said

Barry: Beginning Theory

Jane Austen and Empire

An Outpost of Progress

Discussie

Kenmerken van de postkoloniale aanpak

"Adopt, Adapt, Adept"

Edward Said

1 november 1935 - 23 september 2003

Palestijns-Amerikaans literatuur-wetenschapper

Oriëntalism (1978): The Orient, he says, features in the Western mind ‘as a sort of surrogate and even underground self’