• NARRATIVES OF EMPIRE: Masked Fictions

    Author(s):
    Tom Durwood (see profile) , Nalini Iyer
    Date:
    2011
    Subject(s):
    British territories and possessions, Women
    Item Type:
    Online publication
    Tag(s):
    empire, British empire
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/at9k-bb83
    Abstract:
    Smart people like Edward Said, Harold Bloom and, here, Nalini Iyer, see elements of imperial narratives in novels like Robinson Crusoe and Lord of the Flies. The same elements can be identified in contemporary stories movies like Avatar. As empires change, so do the stories we tell to make sense of the machineries and processes that support them. What is an “imperial narrative”? Who cares? While her concern in this dissertation is women and their masked or coded narratives, Prof. Iyer gives us some clear answers to these basic questions in her interview and in the excerpt here. If you read her entire dissertation, you will see the in-depth scholarship which supports her arguments with specific and detailed examples of masked literature. When she discusses historiography in the second paragraph of the excerpt, she means the process of writing history. My students always enjoy writing like this. It seems at first to be hopelessly obscure – but we quickly see that their favorite books, movies and television shows carry many of these same elements (particularly encounters with the Other, whether ET: The Extraterrestrial or Harry Potter, a vampire in Twilight or a warrior in Last of the Mohicans). A topic like this one can propel a study unit on the Other that lasts for weeks, and one that dovetails as easily with sociology as it does with literature.
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Online publication     Show details
    Pub. URL:
    http://empirestudies.com/2011/08/29/masked-fictions/
    Publisher:
    Empire Studies Magazine
    Pub. Date:
    August 29, 2011
    Website:
    empirestudies.com
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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