Caliban's Victorian Children: Racial Negotiations from Emancipation to Jubilee

Abstract

This dissertation examines the various discursive expressions of black agency that formed the stereotypical representations of African descendants found in Victorian racial discourse. It is, therefore, an analysis of the discursive practices of peoples of African descent and not of the actual stereotypes frequently associated with Victorian racial discourse. I believe that a close reading and analysis of the discursive practices of peoples of African descent subject to British rule will generate more focused critical narratives about the fantasies that plagued the British imagination well into the twentieth century. This study also suggest that contemporary scholars should start looking at Victorian racial discourse as an active dialogue and conversation with the Other, rather than a description of the psychology of power.