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Portrait of an Arab Jew: Albert Memmi and the Politics of Indigeneity

Olivia C. Harrison

in Transcolonial Maghreb: Imagining Palestine in the Era of Decolonization

Against the critical tendency to read Albert Memmi’s texts on colonialism and Zionism separately, Chapter Four examines his pro-Israeli essays through the lens of his theoretical analyses and ... More

Against the critical tendency to read Albert Memmi’s texts on colonialism and Zionism separately, Chapter Four examines his pro-Israeli essays through the lens of his theoretical analyses and fictional representations of the colonial separation between Jews and Arabs. Memmi’s early critique of colonial minority politics seems to disappear from his later work, which endorses the colonial (and Zionist) separation between Jews and Arabs in order to claim Jewish indigeneity in Palestine. Yet even his most pro-Israeli essays make surprising comparisons between Palestinians and Maghrebis, including those he hesitantly calls “Arab Jews.” Despite Memmi’s apparent about-face from anticolonialism to Zionism, his later writings betray a transcolonial understanding of Palestine.Less

The growth of rural madrasa

Felicitas Becker

in Becoming Muslim in Mainland Tanzania, 1890-2000

In parallel with mosques, centres of Quranic education, known locally as madrasa, sprang up in the countryside between c.1920 and 1960. They were small, poor, and often transient; their one defining ... More

In parallel with mosques, centres of Quranic education, known locally as madrasa, sprang up in the countryside between c.1920 and 1960. They were small, poor, and often transient; their one defining feature was the presence of a mwalimu, a teacher. Comparison of the parallel development of madrasa and mission schools makes clear that the main reason for this divergence was not resistance to Christian elements in the missionaries' syllabus, but to the perceived interference of mission teachers with the authority of students' families and with local religious practices. By contrast, madrasa tolerated these practices and were more closely integrated into the social networks of parents. The spread of madrasa and of mission schools involves three subtle long-term processes. Topics covered include educational practice and the status of knowledge, madrasa and mission schools, unyago, colonial politics and local networks, schools and madrasa as local institutions, madrasa as sites of encounter with Muslim knowledge, imagining Muslim scholarship, and performance and orality in Muslim education. In general, the history of madrasa emphasizes an indirect association between education and social control – the complex status of knowledge.Less

John Tanner/Shaw-shaw-wa-be-nase

Tim Fulford

in Romantic Indians: Native Americans, British Literature, and Transatlantic Culture 1756-1830

This chapter examines the career and writing of ‘white indian’, John Tanner. It includes discussions on captivity narrative, culture crossing, hybridity, the way Indians portrayed whites, colonial ... More

This chapter examines the career and writing of ‘white indian’, John Tanner. It includes discussions on captivity narrative, culture crossing, hybridity, the way Indians portrayed whites, colonial politics, tribal politics, and identity.Less

The Politics of Savagery

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

This chapter argues that all discourse of “savage” peoples is essentially political. The term itself is oppositional, demanding a counterbalancing term such as “domesticated” or “civilized” to charge ... More

This chapter argues that all discourse of “savage” peoples is essentially political. The term itself is oppositional, demanding a counterbalancing term such as “domesticated” or “civilized” to charge it with polarized discursive energy. Historically, all such oppositions were projected toward their definitive construction within the globalizing enterprise of colonial expansion and domination. Application of the label “savage” created a point of polarity that enabled manipulative control of any subject to which it was attached in the system of colonial politics.Less

‘In a National Light’: War and the Ethics of Imperial Politics

D.H. Robinson

in The Idea of Europe and the Origins of the American Revolution

This chapter shows how continentalism and colonial British nationalism created a distinctive language of political legitimation in the colonies during the mid-eighteenth century. This standard of ... More

This chapter shows how continentalism and colonial British nationalism created a distinctive language of political legitimation in the colonies during the mid-eighteenth century. This standard of behaviour was imposed on a wide range of wartime activities, from the voluntary and commercial practices of militia associations and privateers to fast and thanksgiving days. But it also assumed a critical role as a barometer against which to judge the conduct of colonial legislatures, and it was in this capacity that it underwrote a dramatic revolution in colonial politics during the crisis point of the Seven Years War. The same barometer was also applied to British statesmen and military men like William Pitt, the Earl of Bute, and Admiral John Byng. At the end of the conflict, the beginnings of the patriot movement would use its rhetoric to debate the virtues of the Treaty of Paris.Less

Peter Jones/Kah-Ke-Wa-Quo-Na-By

Tim Fulford

in Romantic Indians: Native Americans, British Literature, and Transatlantic Culture 1756-1830

This chapter examines the writing of Indian author and preacher, Peter Jones/Kahkewaquonaby. It discusses themes such as culture crossing, hybridity, Indians' representations of whites, and colonial ... More

This chapter examines the writing of Indian author and preacher, Peter Jones/Kahkewaquonaby. It discusses themes such as culture crossing, hybridity, Indians' representations of whites, and colonial politics.Less

John Norton/Teyoninhokarawen

Tim Fulford

in Romantic Indians: Native Americans, British Literature, and Transatlantic Culture 1756-1830

This chapter considers the writing of Indian author Norton/Teyoninhokarawen. Themes covered include culture crossing, hybridity, how whites are represented by Indians, and colonial politics.

A Son of the Forest: William Apess

Tim Fulford

in Romantic Indians: Native Americans, British Literature, and Transatlantic Culture 1756-1830

This chapter considers the writing of Indian author William Apess. It covers themes in his work including culture crossing, hybridity, the way that whites are represented by Indians, colonial ... More

This chapter considers the writing of Indian author William Apess. It covers themes in his work including culture crossing, hybridity, the way that whites are represented by Indians, colonial politics, Methodism, racism, and satire.Less

The Revenant Phrase

Laurent Dubreuil

David Fieni (ed.)

in Empire of Language: Toward a Critique of (Post) colonial Expression

This chapter illustrates how the contemporary treatment of immigration is still partially articulated based on the syntax of thought that informed the colonial politics of old. Alongside the multiple ... More

This chapter illustrates how the contemporary treatment of immigration is still partially articulated based on the syntax of thought that informed the colonial politics of old. Alongside the multiple agonistic repetitions reprising the split between colonizer and colonized, the chapter evaluates discourses that celebrate métissage—most often called “hybridity” in English—which have grown during the last ten or twenty years. It is with this evocation that the chapter ends the elucidation of haunting exercised even in postcolonial politics. The fact remains that a textual collectivity reestablishes the phrase of possession, helping us to think how to speak from this place without letting the predicted ventriloquism become a reality.Less

Captive, Campaigner, Conman: John Hunter

Tim Fulford

in Romantic Indians: Native Americans, British Literature, and Transatlantic Culture 1756-1830

This chapter examines the career of the ‘white Indian’, John Hunter, and considers the themes of culture crossing, hybridity, colonial politics, imposture, and identity.

(Post)colonial Possessions

Laurent Dubreuil

David Fieni (ed.)

in Empire of Language: Toward a Critique of (Post) colonial Expression

This chapter explores possession in the (post)colonial context, indicating how the very term is even synonymous with “colony” during the ancien régime. Like “colony,” the word “possession” is well ... More

This chapter explores possession in the (post)colonial context, indicating how the very term is even synonymous with “colony” during the ancien régime. Like “colony,” the word “possession” is well attested during moments when France extends its empire overseas; both words are used to describe this new expansion, as well as the control and the settlement they imply. The French conqueror, in the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century, is often an explorer who arrives on an island, a land he decides to take charge of, in his own name or that of the king. In doing so, he is said to take possession of the colony, that place he annexes. In this vein the chapter examines these terms in relation to the French language, in order to lay the groundwork for further discourse into discrepancies among languages as well as colonial politics.Less

The “Ever-Melting” City

in A City Consumed: Urban Commerce, the Cairo Fire, and the Politics of Decolonization in Egypt

This chapter explores several prominent urban sites in Egypt, such as transitional commercial districts, informal and itinerant commerce, and the hublike construction of city squares (maydans), to ... More

This chapter explores several prominent urban sites in Egypt, such as transitional commercial districts, informal and itinerant commerce, and the hublike construction of city squares (maydans), to illustrate the linkages among space, style, and politics. The material fluidity of Egyptian urban space and style underlay the specific contours of interwar colonial politics, particularly the absence of a monolithic Egyptian identity.Less

Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh/George Copway

Tim Fulford

in Romantic Indians: Native Americans, British Literature, and Transatlantic Culture 1756-1830

This final chapter discusses the career and writing of Copway/Kahgegagahbowh in terms of the various themes that run throughout the book.

Sport

Simon Featherstone

in Englishness: Twentieth-Century Popular Culture and the Forming of English Identity

This chapter centres on international football and cricket, as well as their limited yet powerful performances of English nationhood during direct competitions with the sporting styles of other ... More

This chapter centres on international football and cricket, as well as their limited yet powerful performances of English nationhood during direct competitions with the sporting styles of other cultures. It first studies the cultural meanings of three well-known sporting events: the Adelaide Test Match against Australia, the English football team's defeats by Hungary, and Paul Gascoigne's tears in the semi-final of the 1990 World Cup. It then addresses the questions of masculinity, style and modernity that arose from these contests. The chapter also incorporates wider cultural conflicts about colonial politics and English self-perceptions in domestic games that are structured through social and economic difference.Less

Pennsylvania Politics and the Problems of Empire

Carla J. Mulford

in Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire

Along with the previous and next chapters, this chapter discusses Franklin’s goals for Pennsylvania in negotiations with the Pennsylvania Proprietors, Crown, and Parliament. He was seeking for ... More

Along with the previous and next chapters, this chapter discusses Franklin’s goals for Pennsylvania in negotiations with the Pennsylvania Proprietors, Crown, and Parliament. He was seeking for Pennsylvania an administrative policy that would establish—among all the colonies—an equable laboring and trading situation with Britain, in effect creating a commonwealth (and commonly held ideas about liberties and benefits) among all trading partners. Examining Franklin’s responses to Pennsylvania politics creates a backdrop to our understanding of his ideas about what ought to be the purposes and goals of empire, especially regarding manufacturing and commercial freedom, self-rule, and self-determination. Franklin’s work as a tradesman interested in social projects, his service to Philadelphia, and his concerns about the Assembly’s relationship to the Proprietors, especially as these related to the essential need to defend the Pennsylvania colony—these form the basis of this chapter.Less

State Medicine or Medical State?: A Prison Epidemic in Colonial Burma, 1881

Jonathan Saha

in Locating the Medical: Explorations in South Asian History

A devastating prison epidemic broke out in Thayetmyo jail in Lower Burma in the summer of 1881, resulting in the deaths of over one-hundred inmates. The event could be justifiably described as a ... More

A devastating prison epidemic broke out in Thayetmyo jail in Lower Burma in the summer of 1881, resulting in the deaths of over one-hundred inmates. The event could be justifiably described as a failure of colonial bio-politics and the state’s use of Western medicine to preserve the lives of those under its care. Certainly all the medical interventions made to arrest the spread of the deadly disease were ineffective. Even diagnosis remained disputed. However, this episode also reveals the centrality of medical knowledge and practice to how colonial officials performed and enacted the state. The official inquiry into the epidemic demonstrates that Western medicine informed the disciplining of state practices. Rather than illustrating how medicine was deployed by the colonial state, the epidemic provides us with a window onto how the colonial state was shaped by medicine.Less

‘In that Egyptian den’: situating The Beetle within the fin-de-siècle fiction of Gothic Egypt

Ailise Bulfin

in Richard Marsh, popular fiction and literary culture, 1890-1915: Rereading the fin de siècle

This chapter analyses the relationship between Marsh’s bestselling novel of Egyptian malevolence, The Beetle: A Mystery (1897), and a subgenre of Gothic Egyptian fiction which developed partially in ... More

This chapter analyses the relationship between Marsh’s bestselling novel of Egyptian malevolence, The Beetle: A Mystery (1897), and a subgenre of Gothic Egyptian fiction which developed partially in response to contentious Anglo-Egyptian political relations. Marsh began writing his novel in 1895, the same year General Herbert Kitchener launched his famous and ultimately successful campaign to quell Islamic-nationalist rebellion in northern Sudan, then indirectly under Anglo-Egyptian control. This chapter exposes the links between the novel and colonial politics, placing The Beetle within the context of Anglo-Egyptian and Sudanese conflict, rather than broadly reading it against general imperial concerns. The chapter provides a fuller picture of both the remarkable revival of the Gothic literary mode at the fin de siècle and the society in which this literary phenomenon occurred. The chapter also reveals how Marsh’s text dramatically exceeded Gothic Egyptian genre conventions in its emphasis on pagan as well as colonial monstrosity.Less