Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants
Imperial Sentiment: Colonialism and Consequences in Owensons The Missionary
Department
English Department
College
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Date Range
2012-2013
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
In The Missionary, Sydney Owensons critique of Empire hinges on emotional affect to mask individuated cultural identities. The doomed love of the Hindu Luxima and the Catholic Hilarion--the imaginary union of East and West--is both literally impotent and figuratively fruitless, culminating not in an act of union, but in Luximas decision to commit sati. The imprint of empire on Luxima is entirely traumatic, unredeemed even by the sentimentalism of the chaste love she bears Hilarion. Posing imperial union as sentiment, Owenson suggests, will stamp out individual desire, and thus individual personhood, leaving behind only alienation, madness, and death.
Conference Name
Feminism Unbound: Imagining a Feminist Future
Conference Location
Oakland, CA
ScholarWorks Citation
Shannon, Ashley, "Imperial Sentiment: Colonialism and Consequences in Owensons The Missionary" (2013). Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants. 1063.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/fsdg/1063
