Adventures in Domesticity: Gender and Colonial Adulteration in Eighteenth-Century British Literature

Britain's experiences in colonial exploitation were a two-edged sword. While the colonies contributed incredible wealth, they also contributed dangerous ideas that threatened those in charge of Britain and its identity. Harrow (English, Shippensburg U.) examines how English writers responded to these threats. At first, in Defoe and Cumberland, mixing with the foreign locals was an exotic adventure with only slightly sinister overtones. Later, especially with women writers, she finds preoccupation with domesticity as a function of "Englishness," and finds many examples in travel and political writing that contrast the colonial viewpoint with those of "home." Works Harrow examines in depth include Defoe's Captain Singleton, Cumberland's The West Indian, Austen's Mansfield Park and Shelley's Frankenstein. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR