Styling the self

Abstract

The second chapter considers Livingstone’s own self-representation in the best-selling travelogue, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. Despite being one of the most celebrated Victorian travel texts, the book has received little critical attention. Treating the text as a mechanism of self-projection, the chapter discusses the narrative strategies by which Livingstone cultivated his public image. The body of letters between Livingstone and his publisher, John Murray, is central to the argument. Through this correspondence Missionary Travels is revealed to be a censored text, subject to a process of ‘impression management’. Livingstone’s editing practices become clearer when the published version of the book is compared to the original handwritten manuscript. While this manuscript has been routinely overlooked in Livingstone scholarship, it contains significant variations to the print version. Most importantly, Livingstone had originally included a protracted critique of the Cape-Xhosa wars. Engaging in counterfactual speculation, we might surmise that his posthumous reputation could have been rather different had he not excised this powerful extract. Yet, even as it stands in its published version, Missionary Travels should be considered a highly complex text and one that cannot be unproblematically categorised as imperialist.