Under English Eyes: Constructions of Europe in Early Twentieth-century British FictionBritish fictions of the early twentieth century appear obsessed with Europe. Various texts from E.M. Forster and D.H. Lawrence to Bram Stoker and the period's travel writing explore European spaces, constructing the European as an Other threatening the position of the English. What they constantly repeat is England's difference and the secondary role of European spaces, whose representation resembles that of colonial lands. By reading selected texts, both canonized and popular, published between 1894 and 1916, this study argues that this xenophobic construction is a sign of the pervading presence of concerns related to the maintenance of English national identity, Englishness, allegedly threatened by the European Other. By drawing on current postcolonial theory, the case studies in the volume show that the discourse on the Other produced in British writings on Europe contributes more than has been understood to the making and promoting of Englishness. The authors studied include D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Anthony Hope, Arnold Bennett, Mrs Alec Tweedie, Erskine Childers, and Joseph Conrad. The study will renew our understanding of the role of Europe in the period's cultural imagination, showing that the identities of the English are formed in encounters with different internal and external Others. |
Contents
The Prisoner of Zenda and the Borders of Empire | 41 |
Erskine Childerss Nation | 83 |
Home and Nation in Arnold Bennetts The Old Wives Tale | 117 |
Katherine Mansfields German MOthers | 139 |
Universal Unhomeliness | 165 |
Epilogue | 193 |
Common terms and phrases
Advanced Lady adventure appears argues becomes Bennett Bhabha body Britain British Cambridge Carruthers character Clive Bloom colonial colonialist connected construction context critique culture D. H. Lawrence defined degeneration discourse dominant E. M. Forster early twentieth-century emphasizing empire England Eric Hobsbawm Europe European explored feminine feminized fiction Finland Finnish Frau French gender Gerald German Germans at Meat Homi K Ibid ideology imagined imperial Italian italics original Joseph Conrad Katherine Mansfield landscape Lawrence's Literature London male Mansfield's masculine Modern moral narrative narrator narrator's national identity nationalist nature novel Oxford patriotic Penguin period's Philip Dodd points political position Prisoner of Zenda race racial Razumov reading representation represented role romance Routledge Rudolf Ruritania Russian Sea and Sardinia sexual shows social Sophia stories Strelsau suggested Third Space touristic tradition Travel Writing Tweedie Tweedie's twentieth century Twilight in Italy University Press Victorian Western Eyes woman women
Popular passages
Page 11 - Smith's working definition of a nation as: . ^ *a named human population sharing an historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members.