British Orientalisms, 1759–1835

Illuminates Britons' changing sense of themselves in relation to their Eastern others during an age of empire and revolution.

James Watt (Author)

9781108460101, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 November 2022

300 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.44 kg

'… I can't imagine writing about or teaching any of the numerous works discussed in this book without seriously considering and engaging with Watt's careful and insightful readings. This is a valuable book that will inform undergraduate and graduate courses, generate doctoral dissertations, and expand and deepen our understanding of British representations of the East from the Seven Years' War to Macaulay's 'Minute' of 1835.' Daniel E. White, The Wordsworth Circle

How did Britons understand their relationship with the East in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? James Watt's new study remaps the literary history of British Orientalisms between 1759, the 'year of victories' in the Seven Years' War, and 1835, when T. B. Macaulay published his polemical 'Minute on Indian Education'. It explores the impact of the war on Britons' cultural horizons, and the different and shifting ways in which Britons conceived of themselves and their nation as 'open' to the East across this period. Considering the emergence of new forms and styles of writing in the context of an age of empire and revolution, Watt examines how the familiar 'Eastern' fictions of the past were adapted, reworked, and reacted against. In doing so he illuminates the larger cultural conflict which animated a nation debating with itself about its place in the world and relation to its others.

Introduction: Britain, Empire, and 'openness' to the East
1. 'Those islanders': British orientalisms and the Seven Years' War
2. 'Indian details': fictions of British India, 1774–1789
3. 'All Asia is covered in prisons': oriental despotism and British liberty in an age of revolutions
4. 'In love with the Gopia': Sir William Jones and his contemporaries
5. 'Imperial dotage' and poetic ornament in romantic orientalist verse narrative
6. Cockney translation: Leigh Hunt and Charles Lamb's eastern imaginings
7. 'It is otherwise in Asia': 'character' and improvement in picaresque fiction
Conclusion: British orientalisms, Empire, and improvement
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Literature & literary studies [D]