Unhomely empire: whiteness and belonging, c.1760-1830

Gust, Onni

Abstract

Unhomely Empire examines the role of Scottish Enlightenment ideas of belonging in the construction and dissemination of ideologies of imperial rule and racial supremacy. During the eighteenth century, European imperial expansion radically increased population mobility through the forging of new trade routes, war, disease, enslavement and displacement. In this book, Gust argues that this mass movement intersected with philosophical debates over what it meant to belong to nation, civilization, and humanity.

Unhomely Empire maps the consolidation of a Scottish Enlightenment discourse of 'home' and 'exile' through three inter-related case studies and debates; slavery and abolition in the Caribbean, Scottish Highland emigration to North America, and raising white girls in colonial India. Playing out over poetry, political pamphlets, travel writing, philosophy, letters and diaries, these debates offer a unique insight into the movement of ideas across a British-imperial literary network. Using this rich cultural material, Gust argues that whiteness was central to nineteenth-century liberal imperialism’s understanding of belonging, whilst emotional attachment and the perceived ability, or inability, to belong were key concepts in constructions of racial difference.

Citation

Gust, O. (2020). Unhomely empire: whiteness and belonging, c.1760-1830. London: Bloomsbury Publishing

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Online Publication Date: Nov 12, 2020
• Publication Date: Nov 12, 2020
• Deposit Date: Nov 25, 2020
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Series Title: Empire's other histories
• ISBN: 9781350128514
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4607226
• Publisher URL: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/unhomely-empire-9781350128514/
• Contract Date: Jun 8, 2020