Title: The "disorderly Memsahib" : political domesticity in Alice Perrin's empire fiction
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2012, vol. 38, iss. 1, pp. [123]-138
Extent
[123]-138
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2012-1-8
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/124308
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Examining the fiction of Alice Perrin, this essay proposes that home and domesticity in English colonial writings on India constitute a "political domesticity" where ideologies of race and empire were played out and reinforced. The placeholder of this political domesticity was the English Memsahib. Reading the colonial social sphere, which is located somewhere between the public and private sphere, the essay examines the role of the Memsahib in arranging home, social events and interactions. It demonstrates how Perrin's characterization of a "disorderly Memsahib" encodes this culture of political domesticity. The essay argues that in Perrin only those Englishwomen who fit perfectly into the norms of the English social sphere have successful domestic spheres and any disruption in either of these spheres has tragic consequences in the other as well.
References
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[15] Morris, Jan (1982) The Spectacle of Empire: Style, Effect and the Pax Britannica. London: Faber and Faber.
[16] Mills, Sara (1996) 'Gender and Colonial Space'. Gender, Place and Culture 3(2), 124-147.
[17] Perrin, Alice (1925) Government House. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz.
[18] Perrin, Alice (1913) The Anglo-Indians. London: Methuen.
[19] Perrin, Alice (no date) The Charm. New York: Desmond Fitzgerald.
[20] Perrin, Alice (1926 [1914]) The Woman in the Bazaar. London: Cassell and Co.
[21] Plotz, John (2007) 'The First Strawberries in India: Cultural Portability in Victorian Greater Britain'. Victorian Studies 49(4), 659-684. | DOI 10.2979/VIC.2007.49.4.659
[22] Riley, Denise (1988) "Am I That Name?": Feminism and the Category of "Women" in History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
[23] Sainsbury, Alison (1996) 'Married to the Empire: The Anglo-Indian Domestic Novel'. In: B.J. Moore Gilbert (ed.) Writing India, 1757-1990: The Literature of British India. Manchester: Manchester UP, 163-187.
[24] Sen, Indrani (2002) Woman and Empire: Representations in the Writings of British India (1858-1900). Hyderabad: Orient Longman.
[25] Sinha, Mrinalini (2001) "Britishness, Clubbability, and the Colonial Public Sphere: The Genealogy of an Imperial Institution in Colonial India," Journal of British Studies 40, 489-521. | DOI 10.1086/386265
[26] Steel, Flora Annie and Grace Gardiner (1909 [1888]) The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook. London: William Heinemann.
[27] Stieg, Margaret F. (1985) 'Anglo-Indian Romances: Tracts for the Times' : Journal of Popular Culture 18(4), 3-11.
[28] Stoler, Ann Laura (1996) Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault's History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things. Durham: Durham University Press.
[29] Stoler, Ann Laura (2002) Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power. Berkeley and London: California University Press.
[2] Bilston, Sarah (2001) 'A New Reading of the Anglo-Indian Women's Novel, 1880-1894: Passages to India, Passages to Womanhood'. English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 44(3), 320-341.
[3] Blunt, Alison (1999) 'Imperial Geographies of Home: British Domesticity in India, 1886-1925'. Transactions of the British Institute of Geographers, New Series, 24(4), 421-440. | DOI 10.1111/j.0020-2754.1999.00421.x
[4] Buettner, Elizabeth (2004) Empire Families: Britons and Late Imperial India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[5] Chaudhuri, Nupur (1988) 'Memsahibs and Motherhood in Ninetheen-Century Colonial India'. Victorian Studies 31(4), 517-535.
[6] Colebrooke, H.T. (1795) Remarks on the Present State of the Husbandry and Commerce of Bengal. Calcutta: No Publisher.
[7] Diver, Maud (1909) The Englishwoman in India. London: Blackwood.
[8] Fane, Isabella (1985) Miss Fane in India. Ed. John Pemble. London: Alan Sutton.
[9] George, Rosemary Marangoly (1993-1994) 'Homes in the Empire, Empires in the Home'. Cultural Critique 26, 95-127.
[10] Glover, W.J. (2004) ''A Feeling of Absence from Old England': The Colonial Bungalow'. Home Cultures 1(1), 61-82. | DOI 10.2752/174063104778053617
[11] Gowans, Georgina 'Gender, Imperialism and Domesticity: British Women Repatriated from India, 1940-47'. Gender, Place and Culture 8(3), 255-269. | DOI 10.1080/09663690120067339
[12] Jagpal, Charn (2009) '"Going Nautch Girl" in the Fin Siècle: The White Woman Burdened by Colonial Domesticity'. English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 52(3), 252-272.
[13] Joseph, Betty (2004) Reading the East India Company, 1720-1840: Colonial Currencies of Gender. Chicago, IL: Chicago UP.
[14] Metcalf, Thomson R. (1994) Ideologies of the Raj. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
[15] Morris, Jan (1982) The Spectacle of Empire: Style, Effect and the Pax Britannica. London: Faber and Faber.
[16] Mills, Sara (1996) 'Gender and Colonial Space'. Gender, Place and Culture 3(2), 124-147.
[17] Perrin, Alice (1925) Government House. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz.
[18] Perrin, Alice (1913) The Anglo-Indians. London: Methuen.
[19] Perrin, Alice (no date) The Charm. New York: Desmond Fitzgerald.
[20] Perrin, Alice (1926 [1914]) The Woman in the Bazaar. London: Cassell and Co.
[21] Plotz, John (2007) 'The First Strawberries in India: Cultural Portability in Victorian Greater Britain'. Victorian Studies 49(4), 659-684. | DOI 10.2979/VIC.2007.49.4.659
[22] Riley, Denise (1988) "Am I That Name?": Feminism and the Category of "Women" in History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
[23] Sainsbury, Alison (1996) 'Married to the Empire: The Anglo-Indian Domestic Novel'. In: B.J. Moore Gilbert (ed.) Writing India, 1757-1990: The Literature of British India. Manchester: Manchester UP, 163-187.
[24] Sen, Indrani (2002) Woman and Empire: Representations in the Writings of British India (1858-1900). Hyderabad: Orient Longman.
[25] Sinha, Mrinalini (2001) "Britishness, Clubbability, and the Colonial Public Sphere: The Genealogy of an Imperial Institution in Colonial India," Journal of British Studies 40, 489-521. | DOI 10.1086/386265
[26] Steel, Flora Annie and Grace Gardiner (1909 [1888]) The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook. London: William Heinemann.
[27] Stieg, Margaret F. (1985) 'Anglo-Indian Romances: Tracts for the Times' : Journal of Popular Culture 18(4), 3-11.
[28] Stoler, Ann Laura (1996) Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault's History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things. Durham: Durham University Press.
[29] Stoler, Ann Laura (2002) Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power. Berkeley and London: California University Press.