Imperialisms

Filling a major gap in historical, literary, and post-colonial scholarship, Imperialisms examines the identity statements of the world's major imperialisms in multiple theatres of competition over the course of four centuries. Filling a major gap in historical, literary, and post-colonial scholarship, Imperialisms examines early identity statements and nuances of dominance of the world's major imperialisms in various theatres of competition. Developed in collaboration with leading scholars in the field, this book balances historical essays and case studies, and encourages investigations of conversant and competing imperialisms, their practices, and rhetoric of self-justification. Europe (west and east), India, the New World, Africa, and the Far East are among the sites of imperialism featured here, which are analyzed in relation to intersecting debates on politics, religion, literature, nationalism, commerce, conversion, and race. Valuable for preliminary or advanced studies, Imperialisms provides multiple points of entry into and guidelines for a conversation both current and vigorous.

"This diverse and stimulating collection of essays throws a fresh light on the multiple sites of imperialism's reach from the early modern period to 1900. The focus on comparative imperialisms illuminates the crucial distinctions among both European and Asian imperial powers, while also tracking similar strategies of dominance and control. A valuable resource for all those interested in a long-range view of imperial developments." - Gauri Viswanathan, Columbia University, author of Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity, and Belief

"Our anxious moment of global achievement has ushered in a new age of the politics and poetics of Empire. This complex and contested term represents a crucial turn in revisionary thinking that is nowhere better explored - with greater critical acuity and more creative panache - than in Rajan and Sauer's volume. They have inspired their gifted contributors to engage with the diverse discourses and domains of the Imperial imagination and the result is a collective achievement of great distinction that enables us to frame the troubled Empire of our times with the history that it both needs and deserves." - Homi K. Bhabha, Rothenberg Professor of English, Harvard University

"As the field of postcolonial studies has deepened and matured, scholars throughout the humanities and social sciences have begun to acknowledge the need for complementary investigations in the historical varieties of imperial discourse and practice. Comparative imperialisms: Balachandra Rajan and Elizabeth Sauer have commissioned an exemplary series of essays in just this cross-disciplinary field. This volume brings together the work of leading scholars in half a dozen national literatures, in cultural history, in music, in political science; its purview extends over four hundred years and, significantly, to the Asian as well as the European and transAtlantic theatres of empire. It will be an invaluable resource for all those interested in the intersecting force fields of mercantilist, colonial, and religious ambition; the reciprocal ideologies of nationalism and modern empire; and the emergent discourses of race, modernity, competing conversions, and profit." - Linda Gregerson, Frederick G. L. Heutwell Professor of English, University of Michigan, and author of The Reformation of the Subject

ELIZABETH SAUER is Professor of English and holds a Chancellor's Research Chair at Brock University, Canada.

BALACHANDRA RAJAN is Professor Emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. She is also an Honored Scholar of the Milton Society and a Fellow and Medallist of the Royal Society of Canada.