British Women Write the East after 1750: Revisiting a ‘Feminine’ Orient

Nussbaum, Felicity

doi:10.1057/9780230595972_9

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Arguably, women brought an additional perspective to observations of India, recognizing the political developments but also offering insights into domestic matters often neglected by their male contemporaries. The earliest of these female travelers are of particular interest since they traveled in India before most of the country had been influenced by British occupation (Nussbaum “British Women”). Jemima Kindersley traveled in India 1765–69 and published her Letters from the Island of Teneriffe, Brazil, the Cape of Good Hope, and the East Indies in 1777.…”

Section: Travel Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surveying the Eighteenth‐Century Anglo‐Indian Canon

Schürer

2010

Literature Compass

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The canon of eighteenth‐century British literature has productively splintered into many canons, and one that should be added is the Anglo‐Indian canon. This postcolonial canon consists of literature exploring the relationship between Britain and India and performing cultural productions of ‘India’ in the process. The most important works in the Anglo‐Indian canon between about 1750 and 1850 include novels (Hartly House, Calcutta, The Missionary), drama (The Nabob, The Mogul Tale, The Sword of Peace, The Widow of Malabar), poetry (Bedukah, The Curse of Kehama), and travel narratives (by William Hodges, Georg Forster, Lord Valentia, and Bishop Heber). These authors address issues such as the characteristics of Indian religion, government, culture, and economics; the effects India has on British soldiers, administrators, merchants, and artists; the differences in gender roles; and the responsibilities Britain has toward India. The earlier work in the Anglo‐Indian canon (from the eighteenth century) is more open‐minded toward India, allowing for curiosity, engagement, and hybridity. In contrast, the later work (from the nineteenth century) envisions the encounter of cultures as a clash, asserts British superiority, and promotes Orientalism.

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Section: Travel Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surveying the Eighteenth‐Century Anglo‐Indian Canon

Schürer

2010

Literature Compass

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“…Literary scholars of the long 18th‐century (1660–1830), Kate Teltscher, Saree Makdisi, Srinivas Aravamudan, Balachandra Rajan, Felicity Nussbaum, Robert Markley, among others, have shown how early modern Britons had very complicated reactions to the East. They experienced curiosity, antipathy, resistance to cultural assimilation, feelings of awe and inferiority in addition to the “Orientalist” attitudes of benevolent paternalism, contempt, exploitative mercantile interest, political domination, and the codified stereotypes that came to dominate Britons’ view of the East, especially India, at the height of Empire in the 19th and 20th century.…”

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confidence: 99%

Eighteenth‐Century Indians’ Travel Narratives and Cross‐Cultural Encounters with the West

Narain

2012

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Though scholarship abounds on early modern Europeans’ first encounters with India and its people, any scholarship in general, and particularly in the English language, on their contemporary Indians’ first encounter with Europe and Indians’ view of the West is limited. The article discusses three 18th‐century Indian travelers’ travel narratives about Britain, Life and Adventures of Joseph Emin, 1726‐1809 by Joseph Emin; The Wonders of Vilayet: Being the Memoir, originally in Persian of a Visit to France and Britain in 1765 by Mirza Sheikh I’tesamuddin; and Westward Bound: Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb by Mirza Abu Taleb Khan to show that a two‐way flow of communication and representation existed between 18th‐century Britain and India. An analysis of these travel accounts reveals that depending on the shifting cultural point of view and geographical location of the Indian travelers, “home,” and the foreign or “vilayet” as it is called in Persian (Farsi), was a shifting perception for the writers. The writers found that Britons living in Britain had a more positive response to them than the condescending attitudes, a result of power and political dynamics, which the British living in India had toward Indians, thus revealing an important heterogeneity in British attitudes toward Indians in the 18th century. The writers’ exploration of gender and sexual relations and religious attitudes in Britain was both an important means of defining “home” and self identity as well as marking differences from Europeans. Identifying gender and religious differences with British culture through comparison provided the writers a means to assess and critique Indian culture.

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Rewriting Addison, Antiquity, and Female Agency: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s “Remarks on Italy”

Tung

2021

Emotions in Non-Fictional Representations of the Individual, 1600-1850

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British Women Write the East after 1750: Revisiting a ‘Feminine’ Orient

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

Surveying the Eighteenth‐Century Anglo‐Indian Canon

Surveying the Eighteenth‐Century Anglo‐Indian Canon

Eighteenth‐Century Indians’ Travel Narratives and Cross‐Cultural Encounters with the West

Rewriting Addison, Antiquity, and Female Agency: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s “Remarks on Italy”

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