Abstract
Abstract: This essay studies Poe’s story “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains” (1844), which depicts “Bedloe,” a man from a past imperial struggle in India participating in a present imperial struggle in the United States through a time-lapse narrative. I argue that Poe, here, prefigures the “white man’s burden” critique of empire—the view that empire most harms the white men who are its instruments. In making this claim, Poe both reifies the racial category of whiteness and advances a critique of US expansionist politics. Thus, I read Poe’s story as a critique of empire and a defense of imperial instruments.
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