Fiction of Empire Midterm
been debate in the 20th/21st centuries about whether African writers should write in English or their own language what does Achebe say?
"I'll write in English but not in the King's English"
what slows down his journey/ causes glitches in trip?
"Indians" (in US sense and in India)
interesting thing- what 3 developments make journey possible?
1- US Canal (built by French but British bought their way in then bought the whole thing) 2-Mediterranean (cut voyage from US to India) 3- Transcontinental RR in US (SF to NY in 7 days) and British RR in India (Bombay to Calcutta)
when is Connecticut Yankee set
528 AD through time travel
"The telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph, the type-writer, the sewing machine, and all the thousand willing and handy servants of steam and electricity were working their way into favor."
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain a rewriting of history, Americas not discovered by Europeans, but by Americans-- writing that greatness deep into the past
"ppl had to sleep with their knees pulled up because they couldn't stretch out without a passport" "London-- to a slave-- was a sufficiently uninteresting place."
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain all a lesson in 19th century Britain , meant to say "u think you're the tops but remember you were once nothing" in 1889 Britain is riding high but is about to lose its position at the top of the heap.. late 1860s, speaking of US highly.. the Americans are dominating the industry by roughly 1900, the US becomes the #1 economy in the world-- what Twain portrays all over the book
Many a time I had seen a couple of boys, strangers, meet by chance, and say simultaneously, "I can lick you," and go at it on the spot; but I had always imagined until now, that that sort of thing belonged to children only, and was a sign and mark of childhood; but here were these big boobies sticking to it and taking pride in it clear up into full age and beyond.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain reverse stereotype, the British are like children this was not the way Jane Austen wrote, but Twain saw this had a certain charm to English audience, was exotic to them, first novel successful in England but was super American
"Well the king was out of the hole; and on terms satisfactory to the Church and the rest of the aristocracy, no doubt. Men write many fine and plausible arguments in support of monarchy, but the fact remains that where every man in a state has a vote, brutal laws are impossible...the implied sense of it is there has been a nation somewhere, sometime or other which wasn't capable of it-- wasn't;t as able to govern itself as some self-appointed specialists were or would be to govern it.."
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain shows American teaching self governance to the British
"But I did not like it, for it was just the sort of thing to keep people reconciled to an Established Church. We must have a religion-- it goes without saying-- but my idea is, to have cut it up into forty free sects, so that they will police each other, as had been the case in the United States in my time."
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain The Spirit of Federalist No. 10, America is the land of small factions, 40 churches in competition, nobody can become too powerful
"At intervals we passed a wretched cabin, with a thatched roof, and about it small fields and garden patched in an indifferent state of cultivation"
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain back then the British are the animals, there is slavery, they are naked
The thought was forced upon me: "The rascals--they have served other people so in their day; it being their own turn, now, they were not expecting any better treatment than this; so their philosophical bearing is not an outcome of mental training, intellectual fortitude, reasoning; it is mere animal training; they are white Indians."
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain Haggard had called Germans "white Zulus" for Twain, the standard of savagery is cowboys and Indians
Verne portrays that the world of his day was globalized under
British leadership (bc Britain was the #1 economic power in the world)
British railroad technology
dominated most of 19th century
America is a tinkerer, a jack of all trades, transforms Britain with all these inventions but the deeper point is political:
the Yankee brings democracy to Britain
these last scenes are nonfiction and hadn't been seen in the world but were coming here we see reason Twain was able to visualize how horrific warfare would become was because he knew
the dark side of modernity (it improves weaponry) the carnage of the Civil War
Foulata
the nurse-- a woman archetype-- a nurse is a very respected profession so this shows a generosity to African people. But again, we see fear of miscegenation in the British empire, taboo set up, so Foulata must die or Good would be tempted
as part of the rationalization of the world in the 19th century, Europeans created _________. As world globalized, people realized they needed to organize this
time zones (if this were done today the prime meridian would be in the US)
Fogg is a _____ and people who are living in the past (shown by _____), _____ examples of this:
triumph of modernity religion deter him Hindus in India practicing Sati, Fogg in US encounters stereotype of "savage Indians"-- he is on train and the natives attack it
Gagool
wants to destroy the men (trapping them in cave) she is the mom who wouldn't let hero grow up, common idea "a squeeze, a struggle, he's out" Sir Henry leaving cave is like birth
anxiety among Americans at time: response:
we are an independent nation-- why does our music, art etc. look/ sound British? see gestures that are artificial and forced but they mean something to people, want to have our own culture (contributed jazz to the world for example, or our own opera which was derived from Italy and Germany)
Twain's book:
written in "American" filled w American slang but did very well on the English market
"You see it was the eclipse. It came to my mind in the nick of time, how Columbus, or Cortez, or one of those people, played an eclipse as a saving trump once, on some savages, and I saw my chance. I could play it myself, now; and it wouldn't be any plagiarism either, because I should get it in nearly a thousand years ahead of those parties."
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain Haggard had written that the Englishmen knew of the eclipse and the natives did not, debate over whether Twain took this directly from Haggard, Twain goes to the past to give himself literary priority
I will say this much for the nobility: that, tyrannical, murderous, rapacious and morally rotten as they were, they were deeply and enthusiastically religious. Nothing could divert them from the regular and faithful performance of the pieties enjoined by the Church.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain Religion is a complicated topic in this book. Twain is dealing with Christianity here, but Peagan Catholocism-- anti Catholic, extreme-- good reminder that Catholicism still had push back. Twain is looking at a world with no separation between church and state, Catholicism is religion of Britain, as an American, Twain rejects the established church
" I never budged so much as an inch till that thundering apparition had got within fifteen paces of me; then I snatched a dragoon revolver out of my holster, there was a flash and a roar, and the revolver was back in the holster before anybody could tell what had happened. Here was a riderless horse plunging by, and yonder lay Sir Sagramor, stone dead.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain This is an oriental stereotype of a warrior, Indiana Jones pulls out a gun, triumph of American modernity/ American stereotype (cowboy from the West) takes down English stereotype (knight in armor) protagonist working in gun factory, him triumphing as a gun man shows an American accomplishment
"Merlin has wrought a spell! Merlin, forsooth! That cheap old humbug, that maundering old ass? Bosh, pure bosh, the silliest bosh in the world! Why, it does seem to me that of all the childish, idiotic, chuckle-headed, chicken-livered superstitions that ev- oh, damn Merlin!"
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain flaunting Americanism, newly independent colony- find this everywhere in the wake of the British empire
"The fact is, it is just a sort of polished-up court of Comanches, and there isn't a squaw in it who doesn't stand ready at the dropping of a hat to desert to the buck with the biggest string of scalps at his belt."
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain fundamental reversal, British given a taste of their own medicine, famous opening of Heart of Darkness "this woo was once one of the dark places of the Earth"
"And plainly, too, they were a child-like and innocent lot; telling lies of the stateliest pattern with a most gentle and winning naivety, and ready and willing to listen to anybody else's lie, and believe it, too."
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain in British fiction of empire, the British are portrayed as adults and the natives are seen as children, this is a reversal
Here was heroism at its last and loftiest possibility, its utmost summit; this was challenging death in the open field unarmed, with all the odds against the challenger, no reward set upon the contest, and no admiring world in silks and cloth of gold to gaze and applaud; and yet the king's bearing was as serenely brave as it had always been in those cheaper contests where knight meets knight in equal fight and clothed in protecting steel. He was great, now; sublimely great.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain moving tribute to Arthur
Slavery was dead and gone; all men were equal before the law; taxation had been equalized. The telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph, the typewriter, the sewing-machine, and all the thousand willing and handy servants of steam and electricity were working their way into favor. We had a steamboat or two on the Thames, we had steam warships, and the beginnings of a steam commercial marine; I was getting ready to send out an expedition to discover America.
A Connecticut Yankee in Mark Twain's Court Mark Twain America is so great it discovered itself, greatest country in the world, only America can discover America, we are not indebted to anyone for discovering America
Nathanial Hawthorne
American trying to out-English the English
"these devotees, relentless enemies of Buddhism, are fervent followers of the Brahmin religion..."
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne On one hand, Verne is championing modernity, yet he realizes these developments are incompatible with ways of life of people around the world shows RR/ steamboats going through jungle, native Gods are frightened and run away also troubled by cultural differences "It is our culture to burn widows" "It is our culture to hang people who burn widows"
"At first he found himself in an absolutely European city: houses with low fronts adorned with verandas on top of elegant colonnades. Its streets, squares, docks, and warehouses covered the whole area between the Treaty Promonall races swarmed, Americans, Britons, Chinese, Dutch- merchants ready to buy or sell anything. The Frenchman felt himself as high and dry as if he had been cast suddenly into the land of the Hottenetots"
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne Yokohama, a port of Tokyo, European trade has transformed these cities to be more European, very cosmopolitan
"Clippers of all sizes tie up alongside, steamers of every nationality, plus multi-storey steamboats serving the Sacramento and its tributaries. Products are piled up from a trade covering Mexico, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Europe, Asia, and all the islands of the Pacific."
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne commerce is transforming San Francisco
"In a large room about thirty costumers were sitting at small tables made out of rattan. Some were drowning pints of British beer...most were also smoking long pipes of red clay, filled with small pellets of opium mixed with attar of roses."
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne The Opium den is the standard image of the Chinese-- obsessed with opium, went to opium dens where they could smoke it.
"Mr Fogg was ready. He was carrying under his arm Bradshaw's Continental Railway, Steam Transit and General Guide, which would provide him with all the information he needed for his travels. He took the bag from Passepartout, opened it, and dropped in a thick wad of those fine banknotes that are tender in all countries"
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne shows the routinization of the world, magic/mythic quality of travel is gone, Blank spaces on the map have been filled in by 1870
"Fix and Passepartout understood that they were in a den frequented by these wretches: besotted, emaciated, and reduced to idiocy, to whom each year a grasping Britain sells 11,000,000 worth of that lethal drug called opium. These are sad millions, derived from one of the most deadly vices of human nature."
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne Orientalism- Chinese still depicted as lacking the discipline to resist opium, but the twist is that the Opium wars are represented more accurately as fault of British British trying to force China to open their borders to opium again, East India Trading Company trading opium for tea but Chinese government trying to outlaw it, Opium Wars very controversial in Britain
"Passepartout was surprised at what he saw. He had still not got away from the idea of...But those so-called good old days had passed. San Francisco now had the appearance of a large commercial town."
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne can be disappointing to travel and show up and see a McDonalds.. can fly for 8 hours and 7000 miles and every airport in the world looks the same forward-looking side to the British empire: Verne knows the heart of the British empire is commerce, real power is money...Fogg doesn't look a think like Curtis, usually solves things with money, but he is not distinguished, he is no knight in shining armor...would rather settle w money than w a gun, he buys the boat (but in fairness this is probably a better solution than killing him, which would be Haggard's solution)
"Come on!" answered Ralph. "There's not a single country left he can hide in."
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne Paradox of the modern world- it has gotten smaller, making it easier for a thief to escape, and easier for law enforcement to find him. Mobility is increased in a globalized world, which on one hand works in favor of the police, but on the other hand is a great advantage to the criminal conflict in globalized world: state law control and individual ability to avoid it
"It was in this country that Feringhea, chief of the Thugs- the King of Stranglers- exercised sway"
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne Sense Verne creates that the globalized world the Brutish are creating has been rationalized - when is the next train to Switzerland? Yet there are pockets of resistance-- strong, traditional religion Verne's take on the British empire is much closer to accurate than Haggard's-- it was a largely technological force, had capital to finance it-- not Knights in shining armor exploring darkness
"The worthy native then gave them a few particulars about the victim. She was an Indian of celebrated beauty, of the Parsee race, the daughter of rich Bombay merchants. She had received a thoroughly British education in that town, and from her manners and education, one would have thought her a European."
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne The more a native resembles a European, the better he or she is-- she is beautiful, all this to make it possible for Fogg to marry her. French writers have fewer taboos for sex, up till now miscegenation has been a no- for British writers it is a line you do not cross, but French writers are always more open to sexual possibilities but the point is this is a different writer from a different country but many of the same motifs come up here.
"Starting from Benares, the railway roughly followed the Ganges Valley. Through the panes of the compartment appeared the varied countryside of Bihar. The weather was quite bright. The mountains were covered with greenery, fields of barley, sweet corn, and wheat, plus streams and ponds inhabited by greenish alligators, smartly kept villages, and forests that were still verdant. A few elephants and zebus with big humps came and bathed in the waters of the sacred river, as well as groups of Hindus of both sexes, who performed their holy ablutions piously in spite of the lateness of the season and the cool temperature. These devotees, relentless of enemies of Buddhism, are fervent followers of the Brahim religion, which is incarnate in three personages: Vishnu, the solar divinity, Shiva, the personification of the natural forces, and Brahma, the supreme master of the priests and legislators. But what must Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu have thought of this India, now 'Britannicized', when some steamboat passed on the Ganges: neighing, churning up the sacred waters, and frightening the seagulls skimming over the surface, the tortoises swarming over its banks, and the devout stretched out along its shores"
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne the juxtaposition of modernity and technology with religion of the Hindus. Verne and Kipling are both aware the traditional world is being modernized-- Old Gods are having to confront new Gods of modern technology. The telegram is a means of communicating over distances. Already in the 19th century Americans represent reckless speed
"They could hardly glimpse Monghyr, a town which is more than European, being as British as Manchester or Birmingham, renowned for its iron foundries and its factories for edge tools and knives, and whose tall chimneys choked the sky of Brahma with their black smoke- a veritable punch delivered to the land of dreams!"
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne architecture globalized-- same in India as in Birmingham and Manchester, the homes of the industrial revolution, the British have Britainized the world
what it felt like to be an American author in the 19th century?
Britain was the #1 nation in the world, America not a great power. today we can claim to be cultural capital of the world, but American culture in 1850 was not that high... now we can find some significant American writers (Poe) but can count on one hand... in Toqueville's "On Democracy in America" he questioned why we don't have any great literature, Europeans looked at American culture with contempt... British lit sold incredibly well in America, so writers like Twain saw British writers as active competition (no international copyright in the 19th century so Dickens novels could be published in the US without paying a cent to Dickens enormously frustrating to American authors in 19th century to feel they are still under British rule because still in competition with great literature form the British
dialogue between Fix and Fogg throughout book
Fix wants to fix people, make them right, he is an officer of the law- the form that takes is criminals running away and he has to catch up and fix them Fogg is always under a kind of Fogg that Fix cannot quite fix.,.Fix is mistaken for a bank-robber, mist of criminality about him that he cannot be fixed
In one sense Verne is deflating the British empire: but there is something admirable too
French are so glory-loving, Napoleon's army etc British are bank full of pound nodes
before Twain many writers had nightmare: but Twain was not like that
I will sound American to the English!
whenever the British are looking for respectability they go to ______ Henry the 7th wanted to give legitimacy to the emerging British empire, and said he would call his son ______, thinking there is nothing we can't do with ________ Twain asserts himself into origins of British literature with this then
King Arthur Arthur King Arthur
"It was a white people who were before ye are, who shall be when ye are not, who shall eat ye up, and destroy ye."
King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard Shows Haggard's vision: this country used to belong to white people and someday it will again. There was highly sophisticated African art and architecture and Haggard's view was that the Europeans were taking over, in this story Curtis plays the role Ignosi should-- Curtis deflects Twala. In some ways, Curtis and Ignore next to each other in central image, yet at the key moment Curtis gets to steal Ignosi's thunder
"It is the bright stones that ye love more than me, your friend. Ye have the stones; now would ye go to Natal and across the moving black water and sell them, and be rich, as it is the desire of a white man's heart to be" "...the white man loves not to live on the level of the black. Well, ye must go, and leave my heart sore, because ye will be as dead to me, since from where ye will be no tidings can come to me." "No other white man shall cross the mountains, even if any may live to come so far."
King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard The Zulus live on a "reservation" and have lands reserved to them, Haggard is not holding up any idea of mixing of race, but he projects this as an African desire. Ignosi knows if Europeans come to his land they will not be able to be their own people anymore, used but the Republic of Africa to enforce rigid segregation. Haggard projects this mythically as self-segregation. Part of this comes as admiration for the Zulu people from Haggard, and respect for their bravery with spears they attack an army with automatic weapons -- this is the GATLAND quote!! Good just wants to clear the plain with automatic weapons, something sinister about that
"...and broke out into a chant, or rather a pain of victory, so beautiful, and yet so utterly savage, that I despair of being able to give an adequate idea of it."
King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard Zulu war chants sound like Homer-- this is the highest compliment Haggard can give natives. Shows these authors were not simply negative-- they acknowledge the willingness to fight on the part of the natives. This book is racist and attempts to provide ideological support for the empire, but at the same time it is willing to take a look at both sides.
'Tell him,' answered Sir Henry, 'that he mistakes an Englishman. Wealth is good, and if it comes our way we will take it; but a gentleman does not sell himself for wealth."
King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard almost all of the South Africa diamond industry was discovered by displaced Jews, a false claim of the British empire, suggesting they are not in it for the money but rather the quest for a long lost brother, a message for the target audience of the book, young boys who are enchanted with the nobility of empire
"I like your looks Mr.Umbopa, and I will take you as my servant," said Sir Henry in English Umbopa evidently understood him, for he answered in Zulu, "It is well;" and then with a glance at the white man's great stature and breadth, "we are men, thou and I."
King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard familiar, asserts their equality
"women are, for a native race, exceedingly handsome"
King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard very good illustration of eurocentrism, the women are judged by how close they are to the European appearance/standard of beauty... this book created archetypes that have been present again and again
"After spending a week in Cape Town, finding that they overcharged me at the hotel, and having seen everything there was to see, including the botanical gardens, which seem to me likely to confer a great benefit on the country, and the new Houses of Parliament, which I expect will do nothing of the sort, I determined to go back to Natal by the Dunkeld.."
King Solomon's Mines H.Rider Haggard Capetown overcharges him at the hotel, you can see the narration has a contempt for democracy, empire takes us to the past, and the past is more glorious..., there is a sense there are noble warriors
"Sir Henry's yellow locks were now almost down to his shoulders, and he looked more like an ancient Dane than ever, while my grizzled scrub was fully an inch long, instead of half an inch, which in a general way I considered maximum length"
King Solomon's Mines H.Rider Haggard Henry Curtis is depicted as a viking-hero of this book, he is the poster boy for an Anglo-Saxon hero, which Haggard finds necessary as he thinks that old heroic England is dying
"The three formed a most awe-inspiring trinity, as they sat there in their solitude and gazed out across the plain for ever. Contemplating these 'Silent Ones,' as the Kukuanas called them, an intense curiosity again seized us to know whose were the hands that had shaped them, who was it that had dug the pit and made the road"
King Solomon's Mines H.Rider Haggard Meant to depict the natives as ignorant, they only know the statues as the Silent Ones, again meant to deny that natives built mines, an effort to deny Africans their own past, to deny that they might have done anything great Haggard thinks he is drawing on real history, there is a general European tendency to deny African's their own history
"As those who read this history will probably long ago have gathered, I am, to be honest, a bit of a coward, and certainly in no way given to fighting, though, somehow, it has often been my lot to get into unpleasant positions, and to be obliged to shed man's blood,,,I felt my bosom burn with martial ardor. Warlike fragments....I glanced round at the serried ranks of warriors behind us, and somehow, all in an instant, began to wonder if my face looked like theirs. There they stood, their heads craned forbade over their shields, the hands twitching, the lips apart, the fierce features instinct with the hungry lust of battle, and in the eyes a look like the glare of a bloodhound when he sights his quarry
King Solomon's Mines H.Rider Haggard Of course a lot of native stereotyping and they are being compared to animals, but this is a moment of identification with the natives. Europe was looking like hot and cold running water these days and there was no manliness, here on the battle field there is manliness
Indeed, as we afterwards found out, the language spoken by this people was an old-fashioned form of the Zulu tongue, bearing about the same relationship to it that the English of Chaucer does to the English of the nineteenth century.
King Solomon's Mines H.Rider Haggard Relates Natives to the world of medieval England, founded on military virtue
"We know not who made them, and there are but few left. None of those of royal blood may wear them. They are magic coats through which no spear can pass. He who wears them is well-nigh safe in the battle. The king is well pleased or much afraid, or he would not have sent them."
King Solomon's Mines H.Rider Haggard Superimposes medieval romance on Fiction of Empire, he gives the story a pattern the English were familiar with, shows us that although natives do things that look "wrong" to the English, there is a real strain of nobility in them, Haggard admires them for being warriors
some quote I couldn't find "the irony of the situation forced itself on me..." when they are looking at all the diamonds?
King Solomon's Mines H.Rider Haggard The empire helped finance national debt and the defense budget, the naval strength etc... the British empire rests its treasures on the frontier but the book doesn't show how hard it is to get these treasures-- In Haggard's world, the diamonds are already his...diamond mining rests on the backs of native laborers, but in the book there are no miners the diamonds are just there for the taking
"pushing my hand through the hole in the lid I drew it out full, not of diamonds, but of gold pieces, of a shape that none of us had seen before , and with what looked like Hebrew characters stamped upon them."
King Solomon's Mines H.Rider Haggard the work denies Africans of their own history, idea that deep African past and its treasures have nothing to do with Africans,,not stealing African gold, but Old Testament gold
"Because I am going to tell the strangest story that I remember. It may seem a queer thing to say, especially considering that there is no woman in it--except Foulata."
King Solomon's Mines H.Rider Haggard He wants to pretend that this book is more masculine than it is (i.e. this is not a "chick flick"). He thinks old, heroic England is dying, Henry Curtis is the poster boy for Anglo Saxon hero
"Oh, for a gatling!" groaned Good, as he contemplated the serried phalanxes beneath us. 'I would clear the plain in twenty minutes."
King Solomon's Mines, H.Rider Haggard British are generally over-confident in battle.They tended to usr the Boer's help because they understood the land better. The Zulus, who were seen as more of a threat to the British due to their ability to form large armies, could not be pacified and eventually ambushed and defeated the British.
"You, my reader, who have only to turn on a couple of taps and summon 'hot' and 'cold' from an unseen vasty boiler, can have little idea of the luxury of that muddy wallow in brackish tepid water."
King Solomon's Mines, H.Rider Haggard Haggard is writing to the comfortable English, living an easy life. He is suggesting that our lives today are too easy and have made people soft.
"Then diving again into the bag he brought out a little pocket razor with a guard to it, such as are sold to people afraid of cutting themselves..." Good sprang up with a profane exclamation (if it had not been a safety razor he would certainly have cut his throat)
King Solomon's Mines, H.Rider Haggard core of book is that real mean don't use safety razors, this is a book written against Victorian world literature, reflects that women authors were currently dominating literature, which created resentment among male authors who felt that literature was becoming domesticated note: the book is dedicated to "little and big boys reading it" runs counter to the feminization of literature
there is some truth to this idea-- by the time Twain is writing, Americans are producing better locomotives than Britain. But Twain not content to just acknowledge the transition, he has to suggest that anything the British ever had came from the Americans big idea here:
Like Haggard, Twain is denying the natives their own history crazy notion that everything the British learned was from a Connecticut Yankee
France had colonies in _______ and disputed British for _____
North Africa (Algeria, Morocco) Canada also think America-- without the Louisiana Purchase half of America would be French today, French intervention helped the Americans in the Revolutionary War
what is the joke of the book?
Our legal system is derived from the British's (they have parliament, we have Congress, contact law etc) so much of what we think of as American tradition is British tradition... in the book, the Yankee uses the Connecticut state constitution to teach people.. Twain is trying to claim priority in America!! in a weird way this is true, in the 19th century, America did give the British democracy lessons... set examples like Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address, noble experiment of self governance
relationship between Haggard and Verne
Verne demystifies what Haggard mystifies Haggard cloths the British empire in medieval outfit, lens of medieval romance, we are not here for money we are here for honor, empire is not a commercial enterprise Verne says money is a great tool in a globalized world
different take on miscegenation in Around the World in Eighty Days
Verne is a frenchman who is more liberal and has a broader attitude toward sexuality-- Adoua doesn't have to be trampled by an elephant to save Fogg's honor
King Solomon
a Jewish king from the Old Testament
in book, how have the British come to dominate?
a combination of technology and money tech: RR and steamships money: pound (miles??), banknote-- means pounds were convertible to gold, 2.5 million by our standard, 20,000 pounds
on paper Around the World in 80 Days is
an anti adventure novel, this trip can be booked through public transportation, this trip does not require the courage of Quarterman, no challenge anymore no "remote corners" now taking a bus around the world and the only issue is the speed, not if but when
eclipse in King Solomon's Mines
archetypal moment that becomes difference marker between the scientific, civilized Europeans and the ignorant, superstitious natives (turns out Haggard got it wrong, the eclipse would not have been visible in Africa and England)
best way to see globalization in Around the World in Eighty Days
at this point you can go to any city in the world and it looks like any other
In reality, diamond mining involves a lot of processing ______ is a term for diamonds mined in very bad conditions, like child labor etc, Haggard gives us______
blood diamonds diamonds without the blood on it, British escape the myth of cursed treasure the book reflects so much historical reality but all wrapped into myth/fantasy, in some ways points the truth but in a very clouded, fantasized way
19th century British army was very amateurish, Twain suggests that America will have a superior military bc military academies Twain suggests no army of knights in shining armor could stand up to an American army Surprising dark turn:
boss destroys flower with modern technology warfare that had not been seen before at this point, trench warfare and commanding landscape with machine guns
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an attempt at
claiming America cultural independence
Twain as America's first post-colonial writer
critical of Great Britain, FOE, and Haggard-type writers Twain turns the tables on the British, who write all these novels about how they are the most literate, Twain says there was a time when you were primitive savages! As an American, I will show you that maybe a day is coming when you are not the best
Verne suggested Twain shows
empire brought modernization around the globe modernization but in reversal, because the modernizing force in the United States, the British are portrayed as primitive and the Connecticut Yankee must drag them kicking and screaming into the modern world
also the portrait of women. At first Haggard tries to deny that women are in the story at all (counteracts how women have come to dominate 19th century literature, the fewer women in an adventure story the better). he then corrects himself and we see the split of women in the story that is typical of fiction of empire
evil women (Gagool) and good women (Foulata)
what are some of Twain's motives with this book?
frustration of a young country- we just fought for years for independence but we still have this intense fascination with the British (like American obsession w royal family)
John Stuart Mill on Mormonism
he finds it disgusting but says you have to let them be
so the French were once a great military power but however big they were they thought themselves bigger so what is Jules Verne trying to do?
he wants to know why the British are beating the French all around the world power comes from the sea- if you command the seas, you can rule the world Napoleon "British are a nation of shopkeepers" never underestimate a nation of shopkeepers
Hawthorne was in many ways successful but Twain said:
if they are going to like me, they are going to like an American
______ is of huge priority to Twain, Columbus didn't make this up, I did! sets himself in period before Sir Thomas Mallory so it makes it look like Mallory copied Twain but obviously not the case
literary priority
what was H.Rider Haggard's general story?
lower-upper class in England, his father didn't feel he was worthy of an education, he failed at foreign office exams.. the only way to get a post was if it were unpaid... he didn't have good prospects in England so sent to Africa, note: it was not England's most successful people who came to Africa, the Empire was their last resort
above all there is a sense that Kukuanaland land lacks law and order, which is very typical in Fiction of Empire, to have good natives and bad natives-- what is the distinction?
loyalty to the British
Fogg
not a warrior, very wealthy, very peaceful has adventures, does some heroic things, but from the French point of view the French are Napoleons (glory) and the British are shopkeepers buying their way around the world
some more context for where FOE was at when Haggard wrote this
notion was British raising youth to run the empire so a lot of adventure stories coming out, Haggard wasn't the first to do this but he came up with a popular form: writing about exotic things, capitalizing off of his local knowledge, people thought it was real... also the model of medieval quest, people want to go back to the middle ages as the world modernizes, 19th century had incredible change so people want to comfort themselves by going back to the Middle Ages also book is tying to legitimize/ provide justification for the British Empire
so the only real problems are
people who the British consider primitive
the obsession with literary priority felt by Twain speaks to his
problem as an American author in the 19th century...his work feels derivative of English literature... stories told again and again-- stories of King Arthur etc
to Haggard, the trip to the imperial frontier is ______ Verne______
recapturing the past comes closer to the truth, that the empire is a very modern force, greatest force for modernizing the world in the 19th century Verne shows the British empire as globalization--most advanced country scientifically and technologically... we think of globalization as a modern event but much of it was accomplished in the 19th century.
it is typical to find sympathetic female among natives (Pocahontas or Sacagawea) in general we think fiction has more complex characters but _____ tends to split a complex character into two simple characters
romance
language is a frustration people experience post-colonially Noah Webster:
set up to create an American language (labor from labour for ex) introduces variability in spellong to create a distinct American language "America must be as distinct in literature as she is in politics"
this book is a generalization about American democracy- -but a lot of specifics with issue of Civil War, especially_________ the main point:
slavery aristocracy is just slavery-- when Arthur is sold as a slave, it is like how would you like a taste of your own medicine
what does this book have in common with Solomon's Mines?
some countercurrent of respect for natives-- in some ways, Umbopa is equal of Henry Curtis and the brave Zulus are admired because they at least had courage to stand up to British Twain admires the heroism of King Arthur and the Knights, if nothing else they are brave
Fogg keeping his journey going-- to extend the British empire-- can't be compatible with certain customs:
standing in the way of American progress is natives... Verne realizes logic involves stamping out whole ways of life
________ was once a world power, almost as distinguished an imperial history as Britain, in the 17th century they were the most powerful in Europe, had the most land, Britain always had to rely on sea power but this navy was at least as respectable as British in 1860 British were scared of an invasion from them
the French
brief history of 19th century England to this point
the House of Lords held all the power in 20th century England, early in the 20th century they lost all the power. At the beginning of the 19th century, there were property qualifications to vote, by the end Britain had universal male suffrage. People like Sir Henry Curtis were running Britain going in, and by the end there is a largely lower class electorate. People like Haggard are not happy about this and the empire was a way for aristocracy to be regained on the frontier. This book is a kind of time travel, going to this land is like going to the past.
