Transient observations : the textualizing of St Helena through five hundred years of colonial discourse

Saint Helena--Description and travel;Saint Helena--Colonization;Postcolonialism;Discourse analysis;Great Britain--Colonies

Schulenburg, Alexander Hugo

University:University of St Andrews

Department:Philosophical, Anthropological & Film Studies (School of)

关键词: Saint Helena--Description and travel;    Saint Helena--Colonization;    Postcolonialism;    Discourse analysis;    Great Britain--Colonies;   

Others  :  https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/3419/AlexanderSchulenburgPhDThesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

来源: DR-NTU

【 摘 要 】

This thesis explores the textualizing of the South Atlantic island of St Helena (aBritish Overseas Territory) through an analysis of the relationship betweencolonizing practices and the changing representations of the island and itsinhabitants in a range of colonial 'texts', including historiography, travel writing,government papers, creative writing, and the fine arts.Part I situates this thesis within a critical engagement with post-colonialtheory and colonial discourse analysis primarily, as well as with the recent'linguistic turn' in anthropology and history. In place of post-colonialism's rathermonolithic approach to colonial experiences, I argue for a localised approach tocolonisation, which takes greater account of colonial praxis and of the continuousre-negotiation and re-constitution of particular colonial situations.Part II focuses on a number of literary issues by reviewing St Helena'shistoriography and literature, and by investigating the range of narrative tropesemployed (largely by travellers) in the textualizing of St Helena, in particularwith respect to recurrent imaginings of the island in terms of an earthly Eden.Part III examines the nature of colonial 'possession' by tracing the island'sgradual appropriation by the Portuguese, Dutch and English in the sixteenth andearly seventeenth century and the settlement policies pursued by the EnglishEast India Company in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century.Part IV provides an account of the changing perceptions, by visitors andcolonial officials alike, of the character of the island's inhabitants (from the lateeighteenth to the early twentieth century) and assesses the influence that theseperceptions have had on the administration of the island and the political status ofits inhabitants (in the mid- to late twentieth century).Part V, the conclusion, reviews the principal arguments of my thesis byaddressing the political implications of post-colonial theory and of my ownresearch, while also indicating avenues for further research.A localised and detailed exploration of colonial discourse over a period ofnearly five hundred years, and a close analysis of a consequently wide range ofcolonial 'texts', has confirmed that although colonising practices andrepresentations are far from monolithic, in the case of St Helena their continuitiesare of as much significance as their discontinuities.