The Complexities of Sara Jeannette Duncan’s Imperialist Attitudes
Huenemann, Karyn. “The Complexities of Sara Jeannette Duncan’s Imperialist Attitudes.” Graduate Work in Canadian Studies in Europe. Canadian Cahiers No. 7. Ed. C. Kosch, et al. Den Haag: Studiegenootschap Canada, 1993. 108-116
5 Pages Posted: 26 Oct 2016
Date Written: May 27, 2009
Abstract
A supporter of both imperialist ideals and feminist struggles, Canadian journalist and author Sara Jeannette Duncan was the epitome of the "strong colonial woman" who is sometimes parodied, often admired, in late Victorian British writing. But Duncan did not limit her political involvement to Canadian soil nor Canadian issues. Married to an Englishman resident in India, she turned her journalistic pen to Indian topics, another side of the imperialist coin, while remaining ever aware of happenings in her native country and constantly reminded by her social environment that she was indeed both colonial and expatriate.
Duncan's Indian political novels – His Honour, and a Lady (1895), Set in Authority (1906), and The Burnt Offering (1909) – are particularly interesting in their melding of political, social, and moral attitudes inherent in Anglo-Indian society. In contrast to the gleaming imperialist ideals and the sullied morals portrayed in many of Kipling's popular stories, Duncan's lesser-known works show the complexities of the society which became her own. This article investigates Duncan's Indian political novels along side the Canadian political novel for which she is most well known, The Imperialist (1904), establishing a clear portrait of Duncan's changing view of the Imperialist ideal.
Keywords: feminism, imperialism, colonialism, India, Canada, Victorian
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