The Rhetoric of Empire and the Fiction of Anthony Trollope
Open Access
- Author:
- Eutsey, Lisa Marie
- Graduate Program:
- English
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 19, 2009
- Committee Members:
- Robert Lougy, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Robert Lougy, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Christopher Clausen, Committee Member
Mrinalini Sinha, Committee Member
Lisa Ruth Sternlieb, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Anthony Trollope
imperialism
Victorian
Morant Bay
Tichborne Claimant
postcolonialism
Disraeli - Abstract:
- This dissertation addresses the lack of postcolonial criticism concerning the fiction of Anthony Trollope, himself an avid traveler in and writer about the British Empire. Chapter One provides background about the critical reception of Trollope’s writings about the Empire and traces his attitudes about foreign cultures and the superiority of English culture. I offer a textual reading of Trollope’s short story “A Ride across Palestine” to demonstrate how anxiety about the empire surfaces when Trollope relinquishes his usual narrative voice and uses a more risky first person narrator. Chapter Two compares and contrasts what were in Trollope’s opinion his best and worst writings. Through an analysis of his travel narrative The West Indies and the Spanish Main and his novel He Knew He Was Right I make an argument that He Knew He Was Right was written as a response to the Governor Eyre controversy as it contrasts marital relationships with colonial ones. Chapter Three contextualizes the Cain/Hopkins paradigm of gentlemanly capitalism and argues that Trollope’s The Way We Live Now and The Prime Minister, using the figure of Trollope’s bête noir Disraeli, both warn of the dangers of speculation and imperial expansion into foreign markets. Chapter Four situates Is He Popenjoy? and John Caldigate as reactions to the case of the notorious Tichborne Claimant and examines how Trollope’s fiction “unrealistically” eliminates the danger that those returning from the colonies bring with them. Finally, Chapter Five argues against the common contention that Trollope’s final novels demonstrate growing pessimism and out-of-character imperial zeal as I examine An Old Man’s Love, The Fixed Period, and The Landleaguers. My conclusion is that Trollope’s fiction is ripe with material for people interested in the postcolonial project.