Romanticism and Colonialism : Writing and Empire, 1780–1830

This volume examines Romantic writing in relation to colonial politics and the peoples and places with which the British were increasingly coming into contact. Covering a wide range of writers, it investigates topics from slavery to tropical disease, religion, and commodity production, in India, Africa, the West Indies, South America and the Middle East.

The relationships between literary discourse and colonial politics have been the subject of much critical investigation since the publication of Edward Said's orientalism. Yet although much has been written about the forms these relationships took in the early modern period and in the nineteenth century, the Romantic period has been comparatively neglected. This volume sets out to redress that imbalance by investigating Romantic writing in its relationship to the peoples and places with which the British were increasingly coming into contact. Topics examined include slavery, race, climate, tropical disease, religion and commodity production; a wide range of writers are discussed from Edmund Burke to Hannah More, William Blake to Phyllis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano to Mary Shelley, Thomas Clarkson to Lord Byron. Together the essays constitute a broad assessment of Romanticism's engagement with India, Africa, the West Indies, South America and the Middle East.