Rhetoric of Empire in Mary Kingsley’s Travels in West Africa
Date
Authors
Rana Bhat, Shuv Raj
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Central Department of English
Abstract
In this dissertation, I provide an analysis of Travels in West Africa by Mary
Kingsley that falls within the genre of travel writing, currently a flourishing and
highly popular literary genre. Moving away from Kingsley’s insistence on her real or
authentic experience during her sojourn in West Africa, I argue that her visit to Africa
is motivated by imperial ambition which is evidenced in the rhetoric that threads the
text, particularly imperial stylistics, rhetorical tropes and racist discourse. To show
this colonial thinking, I accept Mary Louise Pratt’s and David Spurr’s invitations in
Imperial Eyes and The Rhetoric of Empire respectively to employ their critical
reading strategies to investigate European /British ethnographic discourses of African
cultures.
In addition to these, I also draw on the methodology of the discourse historical
approach developed by Martin Reisigl and Ruth Wodak to explore the development of
racialized constructions of West African identity. Contrary to Kingsley’s claim on
factual accuracy of her work, my findings show that Africa is negatively constructed
as a land to be surveyed, debased, appropriated, negated and conquered by the
European power particularly British. Moreover, Africans are constructed as savage,
capricious, inferior and undeveloped, clearly justifying British intervention. Many a
time, the Africans are defined in terms understandable to the British, fitting them
within a scheme that is knowable and acceptable within ethnocentric British ideology.
These findings lead me to draw the conclusion that imperial ideology is embedded in
the very language the colonizers use. In other words, language is not a neutral entity,
carrying transparent meanings but is charged with ideology.
Description
Keywords
Literary criticism, Literary History, Travel Writing, Imperial eyes