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Anglo-Indian Visions of Empire, the Raj Revival, and the Literary Crafting of National Character

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Anglo-Indian Visions of Empire, the Raj Revival, and the Literary Crafting of National Character Shadows of the Raj: Anglo-Indian Visions of Empire, the Raj Revival, and the Literary Crafting of National Character by GENEVIEVE GAGNE-HAWES B.A. Whitman College, 2003 M.A. New York University, 2007 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (English) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) November 2012 © Genevieve Gagne-Hawes, 2012 i ABSTRACT In my dissertation, I argue for a relationship of influence between the authors of what I define as the Raj novel genre, or works by British writers who lived in India between 1858 and 1947 and produced novels set in that country, and authors of the so-called “Raj Revival” in 1970s and 1980s Great Britain. The latter encompasses bestselling, award-winning novels (M.M. Kaye’s The Far Pavilions, Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet; J.G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s Heat and Dust) and films (David Lean’s A Passage to India) that nostalgically revisit the Raj experience. Both movements claim ideal British character is manifested by Anglo- Indians, British persons living and working in India, who develop a series of exemplary character traits through the rigors of daily service in the subcontinent. In the Raj novel genre, this model of Anglo-Indian character—and the concurrent denigration of Indian character—is used as a strategy by which to elevate the nascent Anglo-Indian community. In the Raj Revival, the Raj novel genre’s ideals are deployed in support of the conservative shift that occurred during Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s tenure (1979-1990). Where the Raj novel genre’s image of Anglo- Indian ideality is prescriptive, the Raj Revival renders it nostalgic and comforting, a means of asserting lost national prominence through familiar markers of British imperial identity. The specificity and scope of the Raj texts’ influence necessitates, I argue, ongoing attention to the constitutive power of the Raj model of ideal British character in analyses of British literature and rhetoric in the wake of empire. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ ii Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... v Dedication .................................................................................................................................. vii I. Introduction: Why re-read the Raj? – Identity Construction, Anglo-India, and a Nation of Narration ................................................................................................................................. 1 English vs. British – A Vocabulary of Identity........................................................................... 13 Why Raj Novels Matter: Generating the Inquiry ........................................................................ 17 II. New Rule(rs), New Character—Ideal Anglo-Indians in the Novels of Flora Annie Steel and B.M. Croker ....................................................................................................................... 31 The British Raj in Practice and Ideology, 1858-1947................................................................. 41 “Adventure and Prospects to the Right Sort”: The Self-Definition of Anglo-India ................... 48 “She has come into an empire . .”: Mutiny Literature and the Production of Anglo-Indian Exceptionalism in Flora Annie Steel and B.M. Croker .............................................................. 54 “God knows I never thought of this!”: The Mutiny as Spectre in B.M. Croker’s Mr. Jervis......... ..................................................................................................................................................... 74 III. The Raj Novel Rampant: Rudyard Kipling, Sara Jeannette Duncan, and the Consolidation of the Raj Novel Genre .................................................................................... 84 “The Bard of Empire”: Rudyard Kipling and the Envisioning of Anglo-Indian Ideality ........... 97 “We are what we can conquer”: Sara Jeannette Duncan’s Ironic Visions of Anglo-India ....... 119 IV. The Raj Ascendant – Construction and Breakdown of Genre Ideals in Alice Perrin, Maud Diver, and E.M. Forster .............................................................................................. 141 A Mannered Empire: Alice Perrin’s Legacy of Anglo-Indian Life .......................................... 148 The Englishwoman in India: Maud Diver’s Fictional Campaign for Empire .......................... 168 “I really do know the truth about Indians. A most unsuitable position . .”: E.M. Forster’s rejection of Raj novel genre tropes in A Passage to India ........................................................ 184 V. Raj Racism? – Depictions of India and “Indianness” in the Raj Novel Genre ............ 198 Servants, Princes, Zealots: Visions of India in the Raj Novel Genre ....................................... 202 Reading Indian-ness in Rudyard Kipling, E.M. Forster, Sara Jeannette Duncan ..................... 220 VI. Emotional Imperialism, Postcolonial Nostalgia – Reconfigurations of the Raj Novel Genre in the Age of Thatcher ................................................................................................ 242 “Britain has found a role”: Margaret Thatcher and the Rhetoric of the Falklands Crisis ......... 251 iii “The jewel in the crown is made, these days, of paste”: Imperial Fiction for a Post-Imperial Age ................................................................................................................................................... 270 Romance and Revival: The Inherited Ideal of British National Character ............................... 286 VII. Conclusion: “The Power with the Need” – Raj Fictions and the Post-Colonial World ................................................................................................................................................... 310 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 317 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To complete this dissertation, I needed the help of people in three countries on two continents. It was a journey, literally, and I’m so grateful to everyone who helped along the way. First, thank you to my supervisor: Professor Laura Moss. You read every word of every draft I wrote—every excessive lengthy one—and made it all so much smarter and better. Your insight, kindness, accessibility, and reminders that life went on outside the Ph.D. program were invaluable to me. Thank you also to my committee, Professor Miranda Burgess and Professor Miguel Mota. Your comments challenged me, encouraged me, and taught me more than I can say. Editing was a continual learning process, and I’m grateful for each moment of it. Thank you to the University of British Columbia English Department, particularly graduate secretary Louise Soga, who put out fires while I was in Africa and was never less than gracious about standing in line for hours on my behalf; Professor Patsy Badir, for her support in the final stages of my project, Professor Deanna Kreisel, for serving on my comprehensive exam committee, and Professor Sherrill Grace, a phenomenal resource during my time in Vancouver. I was blessed, while I lived in Vancouver, to have the most astounding, inspiring group of friends and colleagues. Thank you to Dr. Katie Calloway Sueda (I can see our morning runs on each of these pages), Sarah Crover and Paisley Mann (my last-minute printing saviors), Asad Kiyani, Liz Buskell, Dr. Tyson Stolte, Megan Bell, Carrie-Jane Williams, Simon Charles, Matt Dixon, Stephania Schwartz, Fred Vermote, Gemma McClintock, Crystal Sikma, Anna Cohen, Brianna Brash-Nyberg, Lindsay and Nathaniel Funk, Joel and Lisa Nikkel, Arun Ramamurthy, Emily Blamire, Laura Estrada, Mono Brown, Erin Somerville, Tiffany Johnstone, Kim Duff, Dr. Wendy Strangman Bassett, Lisa Harris, Eve Preus, and everyone at St. John’s College. And a special thank you to Ms. Crover, Mike Borkent and Dr. Mark Diotte. TA Cohort forever, guys. I miss our Fridays at Mahoney’s. Thanks for all the laughter and love. Thank you to Abigail Scott, who during her life taught me so much about faith, intelligence, and the will to explore the world. I miss you, Abigail. Throughout my Ph.D., I was supported by my colleagues at Writers House Literary Agency, particularly Amy Berkower, Dan Lazar, Maja Nikolic, Jodi Reamer, Robin Rue, and Simon Lipskar. Thank you for always giving me that extra day to get manuscripts read, and for encouraging me in the final stages of my own revisions. Thanks also to my New York support network of writers, including Ridley Pearson, Linda Lee, Cecily Wong, and Saira Rao. I feel as though you guys wrote this with me. Thanks for the encouragement, and for being there. I was sustained hugely in the years of study by my family and friends in Alaska. Thanks to my amazing mothers, LouAnn Gagne, who brought me up to love literature so passionately, and Theresa Lauterbach, my wonderful father, David Hawes, my beautiful sister, Anna, and brother, Alex, my grandmothers, Jane Gagne and Doris Hawes, and my late grandfather,
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