British Literature In Context

At the turn from the 19th century to the 20th, Britain had a double image.
One was optimistic and looking forward to a new century in which things would
change for the better. The other was apocalyptic: people believed society was
changing too radically. There was a strong urbanisation and industrialisation.

New means of connection means there was a new office culture. Inventions like
typewriters and telegraphs improved and changed a lot. It was an entirely
different world.

Freud and Breuer’s ideas were revolutionary. The human mind became
important, and this had an impact on literature. Darwin caused a crisis in religion.
The centre people held on to and their values were lost, and things were falling
apart on them.

Britain was at the peak of its power. It was the time of the diamond jubilee of
Queen Victoria. There was the general idea of Britain being very strong, and the
British Empire expanded rapidly. The Empire was even divided into clusters:
British Asia, British Africa, etc. Britain then owned 25% of the world’s land
surface. Queen Victoria was even crowned Queen of India. But at the same time,
they lost power in the colonies. Like during the Second Boer War, which took
place in South Africa from 1899 ‘til 1902. The British were very cruel and for
example set villages on fire. They built the first concentration camps in the world.
It was a long and costly war for Britain, which they won, at the cost of sympathy
from the rest of the world. In World War I Britain had to prove their alliance.

Colonialism was often questioned (like in Heart of Darkness from 1902). Also, the
wars of Europe had a massive impact on the British Empire. They took their
soldiers from the colonies, but in exchange they wanted power and autonomy. By
the time of WW2 they could no longer be denied this right.

In The Darkling Thrush the persona thinks the new century is impending doom,
and the bird see it as a new dawn.

Women:
In 1897 the Nation Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS)
promoted female rights. Millicent Fawcett was their leader, and they were a
peaceful society. In 1903 the WSPU was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst. They
were very radical. In 1905 the militancy began. In 1907 the NUWSS had their
famous Mud March, a march through very bad weather. It was the largest
demonstration in the UK until then. It was opposing the militancy of the WSPU.
They were respectable women. After this women over 30 were allowed to vote,
and six months after that women could be elected MPs.

The Great War:

June 28th, 1914: Franz Ferdinand dies (insert bad band pun here).
In August of that year, Germany declares war on Russia, France and Belgium. On
August 4th, Britain declares war on Germany. They demonised Germans and made
widespread use of propaganda. Britain was depicted as the weak maiden that
needed protection, or a green and pleasant land of paradise worth fighting for.
This pastoral propaganda was referred to as the Georgian Tradition.

There were contrary voices to this propaganda.

These stated that it was a big lie that it is good to die for your country. This was
received with shock, as it was not patriotic. Young men were raised to be patriotic
on the nation’s behalf. British boys were supposed to be courageous, et cetera.
This was a thoroughly promoted image. They would be able to handle the war
and fight in it. But the war proved a disillusionment. A generation of women was
left behind, sometimes even without care or money. The war broke down the
nation.

Modernism was the consequence of the sense of a lost generation. There were
no values to hang on to, they had to reinvent themselves and society. There were
new forms of art and literature to depict the change, and very exciting new
techniques to do so. The distinction between Low and High Literature was
installed. The awareness that things would never be the same again. Search for
new roots.

Yeats: The new era is not the Coming of Christ but the coming of the Beast.
Anarchy. The memory of WWI was eminent. There was a sense of anarchy, loss, a
wasteland. The wasteland of broken empires and wasted values.

Imperialism is the policy of extending a country’s power and influence through

colonisation, by use of military power or other means. It is driven by ideology. The
dominating nation governs the subjugated country indirectly. It is political, and
the colony is incorporated in the mother empire. The idea is that Western
civilisation is better than the native culture. They wanted to help improve the
native culture, so it could become part of the native culture.
Colonisation is controlling (usually of business) and settlement. This is driven by
commerce, and a large group of settlers inhabits the colony. It is about trade and
economic interest and getting the best out of a country.

The East India Company needed to incorporate India in order to maintain their
monopoly there.
There was a sense of glory in Britain before the turn of the century (19-20). They
had an emperial/Roman moment when 25% of the land surface was theirs. The
sun never set on the British Empire, as there was always a part of it where it was
still light.

Kipling was a great supporter of the Empire. He had the idea that natives should
be Enlightened. This was the white man’s burden: the white people were to
sent their sons to the colonies to enlighten the natives. They were to have
illumination by means of Christianity.
Aimé Césaire wrote the Discourse on Colonialism in 1972. In this she says that
the facts suggest there is progress, when in fact there is none. The colonies are
not a great enterprise.

Colonialism and imperialism influenced a lot of people’s lives.

Cultural Imperialism:
In the 19th century English replaces the Classics as the dominant academic
principle. English literature and the English language become the language of
civilisation, law and politics. Standard English becomes the norm. Eurocentrism:
the tendency to interpret the world in terms of Western values and experiences.

National identity:
This embodies:
-sharing a common history, language, culture, religion, literature
-a binding factor is a sense of community and belonging
-it is a fluid concept influenced by cultural, economic, social and political factors
-the economic power of a country affects how people identify with it
-geographical dimensions: does your identity end at the border? (immigration)
-does the national identity refer to the culture of the working, middle or upper
class? Rural or urban?

In the 20th century the impact of cultural imperialism challenged and transformed
traditional views of Englishness and the English national identity.

Colonial literature:
Written by the coloniser and the colonised.
It’s dialectic: it has many different views and ideas.

India:
It was first mainly economic, then it became imperialised. The East India
Company was founded merely for trade (1600).
1792 struggles with locals
1857 the rebellion at Barrackpore is the first war for
independence
1858 British crown takes India over from the EIC.
Beginning of Raj. (British rule in India 1858-1957)
1877 Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India
1885 The Indian National Congress discusses the
yearly possibilities of educated Indians.
Hybrid Indians could be in the British
administration. Some people in India could get a good education, but they
were still black.
1920 Gandhi launches an anti-British civil
disobedience program with peaceful actions.
1930 Sword taxes in India, Indians make their own
swords
1942 Quit India Movement. They wanted to be
credited for their help in the war, or become independent. On the 14th of
July parliament demanded immediate independence.
1947 End of British rule. India was divided into Hindu
(India) and Muslim (Pakistan).

Usually, negative tags were stuck on natives. They were beastly. The people were
stereotyped.

Anti-Imperialistic literature:
These oppositions were broken down and questioned. Deconstruction. Coloniser
and colonised were not very different. Cultural nationalism. Their culture was
precious.

Imperial literature
Binary opposites: black-white; uncivilised-developed; nature-culture.

The racially and culturally “Other”

Satire, ridicule directed to the colonised

Confirming English hegemony and values

Nationalism

Anti-imperial literature

Binary opposites are deconstructed.

The “Other” resembles the “Self”

Satire, ridicule directed to the colonisers

A careful challenging of English hegemony and values

A sense of transculturation and/or hybridity

The subaltern’s voice and perspective are represented

Indian language and culture emphasised. Cultural nationalism.

H. Newbolt:
A Ballad of John Nicholson. Talks about the Mutiny of 1857. Pro-Imperialist.
Sterotyped Indians. John N is a good coloniser. Stiff upper lip. Claims power for
the British. Courageous. The Indian is cowardly. He leaves the scene in shame.

E.M. Forster:
Shows the shortcomings of the British. Claims the country as his own as well as
other people’s. Ridicules the colonisers.

The Nonsense Club goes back to Bengali for literature. But there is also
hybridity in literature.

Ireland:
1649: Cromwell leads an army to Ireland. Massibve plundering and dispossession
of land.

1798: Irish rebellion led by Society of United Irishmen

1801: Union of England and Ireland.

1829: Catholic Emancipation Act

1840: Young Ireland founded

1845-1852: The Great Famine

1858: Irish Republican Brotherhood formed

1867: Fenian rising

1879-1882: Land Wars

1905: Sinn Fein founded

1916: Easter Rising

1919: Establishment of the Irish Republican Army

1919-1921: War of independence

1923: End of civil war

Cromwell plunders Ireland. It’s given to Protestant soldiers from his army. The
Irish are not allowed to go to universities, etc. British hegemony.
1829 > Irish finally allowed to take public offices
Great Famine > Many farmers evicted, not being able to pay the rent due to
potato blight. People starved by the side of the road.

Irish Republican Brotherhood

Fenian Rising which is supported by immigrants in Canadan and America.

Land wars.
Sinn Fein: Easter Rising. Important people held an uprising demanding
independence. Destruction to Dublin. Many protesters attacked and executed.

WWI:
British wanted help, but Ireland wanted more independence. The British forgot
most of their earlier promises. The official establishment of the Irish Republican
Army leads to the War of Independence of 1919-1921 + A war between pro- and
anti-English people.

Celtic Twilight (like the book, only Irish)

Back to Irish mythology. Roots. People wanted Gaelic back. Patrick Pearse: Hij
leidde de paasopstand in Dublin in 1916. Voorafgaand aan de Paasopstand werd
hij door de opstandelingen gekozen tot eerste president van de nog uit te roepen
Ierse Republiek.
Ethna Carbery: Going back to the diaspora of irish. Kathaleen Ní Houlihan =
depiction of Ireland. Old woman without a home who needs young, Irish men to
fight for her (in war of independence).

Irish Literary Revival: anti-Imperialism. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory.

Language. Going back to Gaelic? Biggest cultural heritage. Resist Imperial
regime.

Yeats:
Easter 1916. Anti-Imperialism. Describes all that has changed. People have
become obsessed with Irish Nationalism, rather than smalltalk. People are stone-
hearted because of the independence. Useless deaths came about due to the
Easter Rising. England was still stronger. National colour of green: terrible deaths
but the beauty is in the passion.

Postcolonialism.
Economic and cultural ties to the ‘motherland’. E.g. in India and Pakistan cricket
is hip. Way of looking at political status.
All culture is effected by the imperial process from the moment of colonisation to
the present day. So the colonisers as well.

The term is applied to a variety of disciplines (history, culture, anthropology,

religion, politics, economy).
Each country has a different colonisation and decolonisation and the ties between
coloniser and colonised are different as well.

Why use the term?

It is the most convenient way of capturing the powerful and diverse literary
responses of decolonisation and independence and post-independence.

It is about:
History

Hegemony

Cultural imperialism

Identity

Language

Cultural Imperialism:
More of their own culture into native culture, showing it’s superiority. Native
culture loses significance.

Identity:
Do you have more than one particular identity? Hybridity. People are raised in
different cultural backgrounds, and identify with them all.

Language:
Which one will be more important in the end?

Ethiop:
Big promised land for diasporised black people, the Rastafari. Radicals like
Marcus Garvey. Veganism/vegetarianism/meditation. Red/yellow/green = flag of
Ethiop. Dreadlocks which are never to be washed.