Stories of Empire
Beschreibung
Christa Knellwolf King, Margarete Rubik (Eds.)
Stories of Empire. Narrative Strategies for the Legitimation of an Imperial World Order
ISBN 978-3-86821-074-3, 256 S., kt., € 24,50 (2009)
(ELCH - Studies in English Literary and Cultural History, Bd. 33)
By utilising cognitive and narrative methodology to interpret the discourses that established and challenged colonialist mentalities, this collection of essays outlines new approaches to the understanding of the imaginary foundations of empire. Its multidisciplinary approaches to the cross-fertilisations between historical documents and fictional projections shed light on the techniques that were used to transform the abstract conception of empire into a concrete set of relationships that legitimated colonialist supremacy over the subjugated parts of the world. The contributors to this volume identify a number of typical stories that gave voice to contemporary views about the respective place of different cultures on a rigidly defined hierarchy of societal progress and civilisation. Analyses of narrative patterns, that is formulae for imperial story telling and postcolonial subversions, are complemented with interpretations of prominent metaphors and generic conventions that implied that colonised peoples were in need of imperial guidance. The essays offer innovative discussions of historical documents, travel writing, and literary works that favoured and challenged imperial mentalities.
Buchvorschau / Inhaltsverzeichnis (pdf)
Pressestimme
"Insgesamt wird sehr eindrucksvoll und innovativ der Wirkungskreis des Narrativen demonstriert und erweitert. Saids Beobachtung, dass der Machtanspruch des Empire nicht unwesentlich an die Macht der Erzählung gebunden war, ist nach der Lektüre umso einleuchtender."
Jan Rupp, KULT_online 21 (2009)