Culture, Empire, and the Question of Being ModernLexington Books, 2003 - 231 pages Culture, Empire, and the Question of Being Modern explores the problematic formation of national culture within modern English society. In this ambitious work of post-colonial and cultural theory, C. J. Wan-ling Wee investigates the complex interaction between a modern, industrialized, metropolitan, and progressively rational English national culture and a nationalistic imperial discourse interested in territorial expansion and the valorization of an idealized agrarian past. Starting with the Victorian era, the work documents the complex relationship of concepts such as "home" and "frontier" and "English' and "colonial" through an analysis of key literary-cultural figures in their historical contexts: Rudyard Kipling, Charles Kingsley, T.S. Eliot, and V.S. Naipaul. Wee brings the discussion of modernity into the present with a consideration of post-imperial Singapore--a neo-traditionalist modern society that reworks many of the colonial tropes and contradictions--to investigate the ambiguities and contradictions revealed in the West's engagement with modernity. |
Contents
Culture Empire Modernity | 1 |
Primitive Vigor Empire and a Pure National Culture | 37 |
The Recovery of the English Frontier in England | 77 |
Copyright | |
5 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adventure Alton Locke Amyas antimodern argues Ashis Nandy Asia Asian modernity Ayacanora become Britain British Cambridge University Press Charles Kingsley Christian civilization colonial context critical Definition of Culture despite economic Edwardian empire England English culture English identity English national Enigma Europe European feminine high culture Homi K human idea imperial frontier imperialist Indian industrial intellectual Kingsley and Kipling Kingsley's Kipling's land Lee Kuan Yew liberal lish literary Literature London manly masculine masculinist Mimic Mimic Men narrative national culture national-imperial discourse national-imperialist native non-European novel past Plea for Rationality political Pook's Hill postcolonial primitive progress Puck of Pook's race racial Ralph Raymond Williams religion Rider Haggard Roman Routledge Rudyard Kipling rural savage sense Singapore social society spirit Stalky story T. S. Eliot Teutonic thought tion tional tradition Trinidad ture urban V. S. Naipaul Victorian vigor virile West Western Westward Westward Ho writer York
References to this book
East Asian Pop Culture: Analysing the Korean Wave Beng Huat Chua,Koichi Iwabuchi Limited preview - 2008 |