Introduction: George Eliot and the Victorian Postcolonial

Abstract

“Introduction: George Eliot and the Postcolonial,” sets out the theoretical and critical contexts for this examination of George Eliot’s work from the perspective of postcolonial studies. It considers Eliot’s work in light of Said’s problematic “travelling theory” and the formal myopia of his influential reading of Daniel Deronda; aesthetic and critical cosmopolitanism; the decolonization of periodization in literary study; and the potential of transhistorical postcolonial studies. At a time when Raj nostalgia is on the rise, the fate of postcolonial studies itself is questioned, and Victorian studies has taken a global turn, this study locates Eliot’s work in the imperial globalization of its time, and considers the operations of internal, regional, and ancient colonialisms in the novels, paying particular attention to the influence of Sir Walter Scott.