Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850
This thesis compares two bodies of travel writing; the accounts of ‘middling types’ of British travellers to Italy and to India from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Rather than treat British engagement with these two travel destinations separately, as has tended to be the case,...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/63687/ |
| _version_ | 1848800048557588480 |
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| author | Robinson, David |
| author_facet | Robinson, David |
| author_sort | Robinson, David |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This thesis compares two bodies of travel writing; the accounts of ‘middling types’ of British travellers to Italy and to India from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Rather than treat British engagement with these two travel destinations separately, as has tended to be the case, I consider the ways in which British travel to Italy and India contributed to and justified an emerging sense of British identity, which reflected the growing cultural and political authority of the middle-classes.
Travellers’ discourse on India has been, broadly, considered as part of Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism; the creation of an East-West binary of racial inferiority and superiority. However, the ‘superiority’ of the West is apparently disrupted by another division configured by travellers during the same period, that of a European North-South binary. Manfred Pfister has termed this binary ‘Meridionism’, noting that ‘there is an intra-European “Meridionism” as well as a global Orientalism.’ Rather than think about Orientalism and Meridionism separately or as two parallel but distinct processes, this thesis examines the relationship between Orientalism and Meridionism. I explore the ways in which Orientalism and Meridionism interact to and reinforce each other and, in the process, configure a sense of British identity based around bourgeois ‘virtue’. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:45:22Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-63687 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:45:22Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-636872025-02-28T12:23:56Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/63687/ Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850 Robinson, David This thesis compares two bodies of travel writing; the accounts of ‘middling types’ of British travellers to Italy and to India from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Rather than treat British engagement with these two travel destinations separately, as has tended to be the case, I consider the ways in which British travel to Italy and India contributed to and justified an emerging sense of British identity, which reflected the growing cultural and political authority of the middle-classes. Travellers’ discourse on India has been, broadly, considered as part of Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism; the creation of an East-West binary of racial inferiority and superiority. However, the ‘superiority’ of the West is apparently disrupted by another division configured by travellers during the same period, that of a European North-South binary. Manfred Pfister has termed this binary ‘Meridionism’, noting that ‘there is an intra-European “Meridionism” as well as a global Orientalism.’ Rather than think about Orientalism and Meridionism separately or as two parallel but distinct processes, this thesis examines the relationship between Orientalism and Meridionism. I explore the ways in which Orientalism and Meridionism interact to and reinforce each other and, in the process, configure a sense of British identity based around bourgeois ‘virtue’. 2020-12-11 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/63687/1/Final%20Corrected%20Version.pdf Robinson, David (2020) Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. History literature travel literature nineteenth century eighteenth century colonial India Romantic Italy art Rome classical Rome gender women class race Orientalism Meridionism |
| spellingShingle | History literature travel literature nineteenth century eighteenth century colonial India Romantic Italy art Rome classical Rome gender women class race Orientalism Meridionism Robinson, David Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850 |
| title | Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850 |
| title_full | Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850 |
| title_fullStr | Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850 |
| title_short | Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850 |
| title_sort | orientalism or meridionism? british identity formation through travel writing on india and italy, 1760-1850 |
| topic | History literature travel literature nineteenth century eighteenth century colonial India Romantic Italy art Rome classical Rome gender women class race Orientalism Meridionism |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/63687/ |