The “Rhetoric of Empire” in Hume Nisbet’s A Colonial Tramp: Travels and Adventures in Australia and New Guinea (V. 2, 1891)
Loading...
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Mouloud Mammeri University
Abstract
This dissertation has studied Hume Nisbet’s A Colonial Tramp: Travels and Adventures in
Australia and New Guinea (V. 2, 1891), with a primary focus on identifying the presence of imperialistic rhetoric within the text. The aim of the study is to examine how Nisbet’s narrative reflects and perpetuates the ideologies of British imperialism. This study is carried out to
provide a critical analysis of colonial literature and to understand the rhetorical strategies used to justify colonization. Methodologically, the theory presented in David Spurr’s The Rhetoric of
Empire (1993) serves as the theoretical foundation for the study. I have borrowed three rhetorical elements, namely “negation”, “affirmation” and “appropriation” which are all prevalent in Nisbet’s work. In fact, in the first chapter, I have used the notion of “negation” to
expose the falsified images presented in the text, portraying Australia and New Guinea as dark spots and depicting their people as inferior to the British colonizer. In the second chapter, the
study has examined the positive portrayal of the colonizer as superior in terms of intellectual capacities that claim their superiority and power. As for the third chapter, I have analyzed how the colonizer takes over the colonized land to exploit its people and their natural resources. Therefore, the study demonstrates how Nisbet negates the colonized people and emphasizes the
dominance of the British colonizer in such a way as to prepare the latter’s appropriation of the
native’s land. Ultimately, the results of this analysis emphasize the imperialistic rhetoric present in Nisbet’s travelogue.
Description
56p. ; 30cm(+CD-Rom)
Keywords
Affirmation, Appropriation, Imperial rhetoric, Nisbet, Negation
Citation
Literature and Civilization