Imperial Rhetoric in Mrs. Robert. Lee’s Adventures in Australia; or, the Wanderings of Captain Spencer in the Bush and the Wilds (1851)
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Date
2021-06
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Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
This dissertation examined Mrs. R. Lee‟s Adventures in Australia; Or, The Wanderings of
Captain Spencer in the Bush and the Wilds (1851). We have analyzed the existence of
imperialist rhetoric and ideology in the text, by presenting the colonizer and the colonized
through the European perspective. Our work is based on the theory of David Spurr‟s the
Rhetoric of Empire (1993). We have mainly used three concepts: Negation, Affirmation and
Appropriation which are all apparent in Lee‟s work. In fact, in the first chapter we have used
the notion of “Negation” to show the falsified images given to the Australian land as a dark
space and its people as an inferior race. In the second chapter, we analyzed the positive
portrayal of the colonizer as superior in terms of intellectual capacities that claim their
superiority and power. As for the third chapter, we examined how the colonizer encroached
upon the Australian land to exploit its inhabitants as well as natural resources. In other
words, we showed how Lee negates the Australians and affirms the English and Europeans in
such a way as to prepare the latter‟s appropriation of the former‟s land.
Description
30cm ; 57p.