Book contents
- Imperial Emotions
- Critical Perspectives on Empire
- Imperial Emotions
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Emotions and Empire
- 1 Children of Empire: British Nationalism and Colonial Utopias
- 2 Colonial ‘Blind Spots’: Images of Frontier Conflict
- 3 Australian Uncle Tom’s Cabins
- 4 The Homeless of Empire: Imperial Outcasts in Bleak House
- 5 Christian Heroes on the New Frontier
- 6 Charity Begins at Home: Philanthropy, Magic Lantern Slides and Missionary Performances
- 7 The Republican Debate and Popular Royalism: ‘a Strange Reluctance to Actually Shout at the Queen’
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Colonial ‘Blind Spots’: Images of Frontier Conflict
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2019
- Imperial Emotions
- Critical Perspectives on Empire
- Imperial Emotions
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Emotions and Empire
- 1 Children of Empire: British Nationalism and Colonial Utopias
- 2 Colonial ‘Blind Spots’: Images of Frontier Conflict
- 3 Australian Uncle Tom’s Cabins
- 4 The Homeless of Empire: Imperial Outcasts in Bleak House
- 5 Christian Heroes on the New Frontier
- 6 Charity Begins at Home: Philanthropy, Magic Lantern Slides and Missionary Performances
- 7 The Republican Debate and Popular Royalism: ‘a Strange Reluctance to Actually Shout at the Queen’
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Visual representations of colonial violence constitute an overlooked source of evidence that although shaped by contemporary visual and cultural conventions allow us to engage with this troubling history in significant ways. The ‘history wars’ of the turn of the millennium have been accused of focusing on disciplinary protocols with the effect of obscuring the moral implications of colonial invasion and dispossession. By contrast, images evoke empathy, creating social relationships across the British empire that defined identities and aligned viewers with specific communities. Images also return the modern viewer to the emotional and moral intensity of 1830s and 1840s frontier violence in south-eastern Australia. They map colonial ‘blind spots’ by demonstrating the ways that these emotions were politicized to legitimate colonial interests, for example by directing sympathy towards white colonists, or seeking to evoke compassion for Aboriginal people. From our present-day perspective, these visual images help us to see our ‘reflection’, and acknowledge the truth of our history and its legacies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Imperial EmotionsThe Politics of Empathy across the British Empire, pp. 51 - 76Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019