Imperial Emotions: The Politics of Empathy across the British Empire (Critical Perspectives on Empire)

Emotions are not universal, but are experienced and expressed in diverse ways within different cultures and times. This overview of the history of emotions within nineteenth-century British imperialism focuses on the role of the compassionate emotions, or what today we refer to as empathy, and how they created relations across empire. Jane Lydon examines how empathy was produced, qualified and contested, including via the fear and anger aroused by frontier violence. She reveals the overlooked emotional dimensions of relationships constructed between Britain, her Australasian colonies, and Indigenous people, showing that ideas about who to care about were frequently drawn from the intimate domestic sphere, but were also developed through colonial experience. This history reveals the contingent and highly politicised nature of emotions in imperial deployment. Moving beyond arguments that emotions such as empathy are either 'good' or 'bad', this study evaluates their concrete political uses and effects. "Over the last decades of the eighteenth century, hopes and ambitions turned to conceptions of the great southern land, and the British nurtured fond plans for the Antipodean colonies of Australia and New Zealand conceived as children of the British Empire, one day to assume a glorious inheritance. Many emotional ties first experienced within the British family were applied to, enlarged, and challenged by the relationships and scope of empire: ideas about inheritance and childhood, for example, shaped utopian views of the colonies, while racial exclusion could be couched in terms of class. From colonization in 1788, the reality of invasion and violence against Indigenous people challenged this imaginary future, prompting mourning and erasure"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Half-title page 3 Series page 4 Title page 5 Copyright page 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 List of Figures 10 Acknowledgements 13 Introduction: Emotions and Empire 17 1 Children of Empire: British Nationalism and Colonial Utopias 41 2 Colonial ‘Blind Spots’: Images of Frontier Conflict 67 3 Australian Uncle Tom’s Cabins 93 4 The Homeless of Empire: Imperial Outcasts in Bleak House 116 5 Christian Heroes on the New Frontier 139 6 Charity Begins at Home: Philanthropy, Magic Lantern Slides and Missionary Performances 159 7 The Republican Debate and Popular Royalism: ‘a Strange Reluctance to Actually Shout at the Queen’ 180 Bibliography 204 Index 232 Emotions are not universal, but are experienced and expressed differently across cultures and times. Jane Lydon examines how emotions were used to justify, advance or contest imperialism by creating relationships between British subjects across the globe, but also by excluding specific groups.