Dettagliato: Colonialismo : Haggard, Conrad, Achebe e Okri. Introduzione al periodo e key concepts.

Victorian Age (1837-1901)

The word “Victorian” derives from Queen Victoria who ruled from 1837 to 1901, becoming the symbol of the nation. It was a crucial age that saw the development of modernity.

Positive aspects of the Victorian Age

• Huge economic growth that was directly related to industrialization (people moved from the country to cities and started to work in industries) and colonial expansion, contributing to the growth of England's power. Britain became the most industrialized country in the world, especially for the production of cotton or for commerce worldwide. So, Britain started to colonize the world. The Empire grew also thanks to the purchase of raw materials from the colonies, which were sold everywhere.
• Rich population in England: this was the period in which classes suffered changes. There was the rise of the bourgeoisie or middle class and the decline of “parasitic” aristocracy. The middle class believed that through work they could go to heaven. In fact, for them, labour makes you a better person. The middle class expanded when the aristocracy lost power.
• Literacy: illiteracy disappeared. Literacy was an important consequence on the print industry. The print market became wide and cheaper because they had to sell to larger masses of people.
• New professional classes like journalists, actors, everything connected with the industry.

In this period, there were a lot of social problems, tensions and discriminations, especially for class, gender and race. Classes were divided into: aristocracy and landowners, middle class full of entrepreneurs, merchants, professionals, and lower middle class full of craftsmen (artigiani), shopkeepers (bottegai), teachers, etc., finally proletariat and farmers.

Role of women

In this period, the role of women was very important. The bourgeois model painted women as wives and mothers, linked only to the domestic sphere in contrast to men, linked to the public sphere. There were two important types of women: the angel in the house and the fallen women, who were socially expelled. Sometimes they were considered mad. This madness used to be solved by incarceration in an asylum, physical therapies like electric shock, and moral management.

The figure of a woman was surrounded by a lot of prejudices linked especially to her inferiority as a person. A woman was considered physically and mentally more inferior than a man. Moreover, also people of different skin colours were surrounded by prejudices. In fact, the superior model was the British or the white.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

He was a very important Victorian philosopher. He fought against race and gender prejudices. He was against slavery, opposing the ideas that Thomas Carlyle expounded in “The Negro Question”. The official abolition of slavery by the English Parliament occurred in two stages: 1807 and 1833. He was against the legal submission of women. He identified three different forms of oppression to women’s development: society, education and marriage. Mill was the first who said that women weren’t inferior. Linked to marriage was the law of coverture that says “a woman, once she got married, was represented exclusively by her husband. She could not vote or have money back if she divorced. She was always represented by her husband, also in political and social life. In this case, the husband became a sort of father. Moreover, women had to play the piano for their husband’s leisure and they had to paint, draw or learn languages, especially French, too.”

Mill was one of the first to believe that women should be involved in society with the aim to modernize it. He also thought that if men have no competitors, they can’t be better.

Trade Unions and Workers’ movement

In 1820, there was a very violent revolt of the workers called Luddism. When workers started to live in worse conditions, they began to rebel. There were repressions until 1824.

In 1830, there were many important events like the Merthyr Rising in Wales. Moreover, in 1834, there was the first attempt to form a national union confederation in the United Kingdom. In 1838, a working-class movement for political reform in Britain called Chartism started.

Important is also the Royal Commission on Trade Unions of 1867 that gave advantages to employers and workers. Finally, in 1871, there was the legalization of Unions.

Mill, in his work entitled “Principles of Political Economy” of 1871, explained his ideas about working-class conditions. He was a bit pessimistic about their conditions: “If it were possible for the working classes, by combining among themselves, to raise or keep up the general rate of wages, it needs hardly be said that this would be a thing not to be punished, but to be welcomed and rejoiced at. Unfortunately, the effect is quite beyond attainment by such means. The multitudes who compose the working class are too numerous and too widely scattered to combine at all, much more to combine effectually. If they could do so, they might doubtless succeed in diminishing the hours of labour, and obtaining the same wages for less work. They would also have a limited power of obtaining, by combination, an increase of general wages at the expense of profits.”

Ideas that influenced the Victorians

• Geological studies: Lyell, Principles of Geology of 1830-1833. He started geology, studying the structure of the Earth. He demonstrated, against the religious tradition, that the Earth had a very old history.
• Anthropological studies: Wallace and Darwin. In “The Origin of Species” (1859), Darwin describes the way in which animals evolve, the struggle for survival and the adaptation. His conclusion is that every species can survive if they adapt.
• Archaeological studies and discoveries: discovery of ancient civilization called Egyptomania.
• Physics: Second law of thermodynamics (1850) that affirms that energy cannot turn back. In that society, these discoveries were a kind of shock.
• Utilitarianism: Jeremy Bentham “Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation” 1789. He gave birth to philosophical radicalism. “Every society has to develop the happiness for the greatest number of people”, this implies that slaves sacrifice.
• Political economy: Thomas Malthus “Essay on the Principle of Population” 1798. He studied the growth of the population.
• Laissez-faire theory: Adam Smith “The Wealth of Nations” 1776.
• Socialism: after Chartism Movement, there were Marx and Engels and the Christian socialism.
• Ideology of bourgeoisie or middle class: work and rewards. “If you have talent, diligence, capacity to suffer, obstinacy, and you work all the time you’ll become very successful.”

Australia

James Cook explored Australia, collecting plants, etc. He was killed by natives in Hawaii. During the Victorian Age, the Australian population wasn’t rebellious. They transformed Australia into a penal colony, a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. It was also a settler colony because people went to live there, becoming Australians.

Colonialism (1914): in Africa

For the Caribbean Island, colonialism was a complex process. The Island was colonialized by European colonies, like Spanish, French, etc. Moreover, there are also other populations like Africans, Indian immigrants, Chinese immigrants. Here exists a mix of people who live together.

Today, India is a Federal Nation, a combination of different States. During the Victorian Age, the British Parliament decided to colonize India completely, including what today are Pakistan and Bangladesh. India managed to gain Independence in 1946. In this period, we can remember Partish (religious matters) or the process of division of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Africa was colonialized by British too, in 1914. To dominate Africa were States like Belgium, France (in fact, French colonialized a lot of parts of Africa), German colonies, British colonies, Italian colonies (that gained Libya, Somalia, Eritrea), Portuguese colonies and Spanish colonies. Some States gained independence like Eritrea.

Nigeria is a very important State, free of slavery in the mid-Victorian Age. Here there are many mixed races, for this, it presents a very complex reality.

Important events

• 1884: Berlin conference was a political conference where all European States met.
• Colonization ended very early, in 1931, when colonies became independent.
• Conflict between British and Dutch for South Africa. When British managed to keep control in South Africa, here started the period of Apartheid or State’s division. With the abolition of Apartheid in 1994, Africans or black people took South Africa. In fact, the first president of South Africa was Nelson Mandela, and now to govern in Africa is an African called Zuma.

Relations between European and Africans

Colonization started very late because there were no maps. Colonizers could know what to find along the coast, but not inside.

The Atlantic triangle: British took slaves from Africa in order to bring them to Brazil, where British ships will buy raw materials and other products like cotton, sugarcane, spices and coffee. Then, they returned to Britain.

Slavery

It was a tragedy for many people. A lot of Africans were submitted to slavery. Most of them were children and young people. Slavery started in the XVI century, before colonization. The process of selling slaves was particular, especially because African slaves are sold by Africans themselves. When war prisoners were captured, they became slaves.

This practice started when Europeans began relations with Africans. Europeans favoured the trade.

A man that forced to abolish slavery was William Wilberforce. With him, in the XIX century, started the struggle for slavery abolition.

The most important rebellions for slavery in the Caribbean were:

• Haitian revolution (1759-1833) when Haiti became independent.
• Jamaican rebellions (1831-1832) was the most important.

Abolition of slavery

• Slavery trade act of 1807
• Slavery abolition act of 1833 (a very strange law in which British were not interested because they still had Jamaica and other islands).

There were a lot of forms of slavery. Forms of trade were managed by Arabs for many centuries before the European start.

Slavery and colonialism were very brutal. The mission of colonizers was to colonize primitive people with the aim to educate them.

In this period, many anthropologists started to publish works, talking about that problem and the presence of different races and different aspects and characteristics.

One of them that did a mixed division of the population was John Burke. He divided into American, European, Asiatic, African and wild man. It is a strange description of the many varieties. At the bottom, we find the wild man, followed by Africans, Americans (pellerossa), Asiatic and at the top, there are the Europeans (superiors).

John Burke, The Wild Man’s Pedigree (1758)

• Wild Man. Four-footed, mute hairy.
• American. Copper coloured, choleric, erect. Hair black, straight, thick; nostrils wide; face harsh; beard scanty; obstinate, content, free. Paints himself with fine red lines. Regulated by customs.
• European. Fair, sanguine, brawny; hair yellow, brown, flowing; eyes blue; gentle, acute, inventive. Covered with close vestments. Governed by laws.
• Asiatic. Sooty, melancholy, rigid. Hair black; eyes dark; severe, haughty, covetous. Covered with loose garments. Governed by opinions.
• African. Black, phlegmatic, relaxed. Hair black, frizzled; skin silky; nose flat, lips tumid; crafty, indolent, negligent. Anoints himself with grease. Governed by caprice.

Another to classify castes was Stevenson in 1825. He did a chart of different castes. He did a division by categories: father, mother, children and colour.

Other pseudo-scientific theories studied that problems like the fact that black children do not develop beyond the age of 12.

The study of primitive cultures proved extremely useful to the European domination of the dark races in the age of Empire.

Some Victorian novels: principal topic is colonialism and race

• Jane Eyre by Brontë Charlotte
• Wuthering Heights by Brontë Emily
• The Mill on the Floss by Eliot George

These novels are not indifferent to racism. It is not true that Victorian novelists are indifferent to that problem.

Post-colonial ideas

Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (1994)

It is only when we understand that all cultural statements and systems are constructed in this contradictory and ambivalent space of enunciation, that we begin to understand why hierarchical claims to the inherent originality of ‘purity’ of cultures are untenable, even before we resort to empirical historical instances that demonstrate their hybridity.

It is that Third Space, though unrepresentable in itself, which constitutes the discursive conditions of enunciation that ensure that the meaning and symbols of culture have no primordial unity or fixity; that even the same signs can be appropriated, translated, rehistoricized and read anew.

Patriarchalism: superior attitude of British about Africans: relationship father-child. British weren’t bad people but treated Africans as their children, with the aim to educate or to guide them.

H. Rider Haggard 1856-1925

He was a late Victorian writer of African frontier adventure novels. He was born in Norfolk, England in 1856. He was the eighth of ten children. His father was a lawyer while his mother was a poet and daughter of a merchant in the East India Trading Company. Unlike his brothers, Haggard did not graduate from private schools but attended a state grammar school. His father did not think he would succeed in life. He failed the exam to enter the army and that caused a total disappointment to his father. After, with the help from his father, he managed to enter the army and he got the job. He did a lot of experiences in South Africa, that appear in his works. Here is presented the real South Africa, and not the imaginary.

He fell in love with Mary Elisabeth “Lilly” Jackson, but he had to marry another woman, Marianna Louisa Margitson, because Mary fell in love with another man. Moreover, he did a lot of experiences of political relationships.

His first book was a denunciation of British policy in South Africa. It was not well-received. His second book was quite better received, while his third book was a semi-autobiography. But, his masterpiece is “King Solomon’s Mines”, published in 1885. He wrote this book in only 6 weeks because he was really inspired. Another important novel is called “She”, where is presented a very strange, fantastic, feminine character called Ayesha.

The plot of his masterpiece tells about three white men who found a map of a treasure of diamonds. During the journey, everything happened. It is a tragic-romantic story. It is a novel of fantasy but there are also realistic descriptions of Africa (rituals, superstitions). The three white men symbolize colonialism. In this book is presented a celebration of colonialism and not a criticism of it. It is an ideological choice linked to the propaganda.

Haggard’s hero is Allan Quatermain, who appears many times in his works. His stories and characters reflect some strong preconceptions of British colonialism. In his books are present exotic adventures, themes of spiritualism and antiquity. His aim, of course, was to attract the imperial audience, who liked these things. Moreover, with these themes, he started a new narrative genre full of exotic adventures, spiritualism (phantom, witches), etc.

His protagonists are usually Europeans, though many of his heroes are African, such as Ignosi, the rightful King in King Solomon’s Mines. He was a master storyteller, with a supreme ability to draw the reader's attention into the tale. In his story, there is an evident combination of realism and romance, overall with realistic description and romantic stories.

Romance: a prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous or mysterious. He came also to be fascinated with the supernatural. All stories have the same protagonist, Allan Quatermain. He is the protagonist of 80 texts.

Structure of the text

It is a frame story that includes a painting on work. It is the story inside the story. There are two stories and two different narrators: the first whom we don’t know and the second, Quatermain himself. The structure is very interesting.

Hunter Quatermain’s story

• With the citation, with King Solomon, the author tries to promote his work. The author gives the story a sort of realism. With intratextual references, suspense and curiosity are created.
• Hunter Quatermain's description is very peculiar and interesting. He was the best shot in Africa. He is aging, he is a little man. There are some contradictions, always present in Haggard: for example, grizzled hair vs gentle eyes.
• The hero is a perplex and weak hero, unsatisfied like an explorer. He starts to use stereotypes and challenges them through some elements. He is not a perfect hero, in fact, he has bad and good qualities at the same time.
• Time and space: South Africa.
• Quatermain vs Zulu: rational man vs superstitious man that believes in ghosts.
• The lion: esthetical element vs moral or ethical element. The lion is black like Africans, magnificent as them, vs Quatermain who is short and weak.
• Theme of cannibalism: a ritual to give power to other people, a way to honour the enemy. It is a paradox, a sort of respect paradoxically. In the Victorian age, especially white people used to practice cannibalism.

The protagonist of the story is Allan Quatermain, a hunter who used to expose hunted animals as trophies. In that story, he has to tell about one of his adventures, that is when he killed a buffalo and took him his horns. But, he tells it only at the end of the story, that b