The gift of language: Tropes of British Empire and the Caribbean quest for completion.

摘要

In The Pleasures of Exile, George Lamming appropriates Caliban from The Tempest as a symbol for the issues he engages: "Caliban is his [Prospero's] convert, colonised by language, and excluded by language. It is precisely this gift of language, this attempt at transformation which has brought about the pleasure and paradox of Caliban's exile." Also significant to my thesis is his assertion that "The West Indian of average opportunity and intelligence has not yet been converted to reading as a civilised activity, an activity which justifies itself in the exercise of his mind. Reading seriously, at any age, is still largely associated with reading for examinations." This fact of two approaches to reading in the Caribbean remains true some forty years later. One approach, the exercise of the imagination either for its own sake, or as a path towards the revelation of higher human values, is romantic. The other, reading for the projected consequence of performing well on an examination, is utilitarian. These aspirations are part of the Caribbean colonial and literary heritage, corollaries from the earliest of British novels that allude to the Caribbean islands and their inhabitants: for example, Robinson Crusoe . Speaking of Crusoe's romantic adventures Ian Watt notes that, in order to fulfill his fantasy, for Crusoe "the program of action is Empire"; more significantly, he observes correctly that "Crusoe is a strict utilitarian.";My dissertation, The Gift of Language, concerns the subtle, reinforcing relationship between utilitarian and romantic aspirations in both British and Caribbean writing, that is part of the complicated legacy of imperialism. On the one hand, I re-examine the ideological components making empire-building such an acceptable aspect of Victorian writing that seemingly opposed moral systems could function synergistically, especially when the empire was at issue. On the other hand, I explore the ramifications of this synergy in writing that emerges from the empire, especially that which is explicitly projected as a repudiation of the colonial heritage, as part of the quest for Caribbean independence and transformation.