49. Stories of Empire: narrative strategies for the legitimation of an imperial world order.

Abstract

By utilising cognitive and narrative methodology to interpret the discourses that established and challenged colonialist mentalities, this collection of essays outlines new approaches to the understanding of the imaginary foundations of empire. Its multidisciplinary approaches to the cross-fertilisations between historical documents and fi ctional projections shed light on the techniques that were used to transform the abstract conception of empire into a concrete set of relationships that legitimated colonialist supremacy over the subjugated parts of the world. The contributors to this volume identify a number of typical stories that gave voice to contemporary views about the respective place of different cultures on a rigidly defi ned hierarchy of societal progress and civilisation. Analyses of narrative patterns, that is formulae for imperial story telling and postcolonial subversions, are complemented with interpretations of prominent metaphors and generic conventions that implied that colonised peoples were in need of imperial guidance. The essays offer innovative discussions of historical documents, travel writing, and literary works that favoured and challenged imperial mentalities.