Abstract
The article focuses on the features of a subgenre rather popular with the Victorians, neglected (although evoked) by major, canonic novelists. The Mutiny novel has been identified by recent criticism as one of the pieces of the mosaic in the construction of British identity. This model of identity supports the national imperialist vocation, extolling British qualities and representing historical events in mythical, stereotypical and racist fashion, according to clear, and closely monitored, ideological values. At the same time these novels offer fertile ground to explore the uncertainties and the contradictions that complicate the pattern, warning against any simplistic attitude towards Victorian Weltanschaaung. An interesting author in this regard is George Chesney, mostly known for his The Battle of Dorking or for his works about Indian administration. Chesney is the author of a Mutiny novel, The Dilemma (1876), that sets a plot typical of the sensational novel against the background of the Rebellion, revealing the powerful anxieties inherent the colonial adventure. Other novelists who wrote on the Rebellion (G. Henty, J.F. Fanthorne among them) are equally interesting to explore the ambiguities of identity construction.
Highlights
The Indian rebellion of 1857, the ‘Mutiny’ as British contemporaries defined it, conjugated the interest for history with the immense curiosity that surrounded colonial life, proving to be a fecund and long lasting source of inspiration for many Victorian writers. i Recent critical studies have researched the Mutiny under different perspectives, Writing at the end of the century, Hilda Gregg could be conscious of the extraordinary grip that the topic of the Rebellion exercised on “the popular imagination”, in comparison to other historical events.iii The Indian uprising was crucial in changing the relationship between Britain and its most important colony, but its abruptness and its violence were essential ingredients in determining the interest of the media and the public’s long lasting involvement (Brantlinger 1988)
While the press and virtually all other available media immediately invaded the market provoking strong reactions in the public, the novel, as Gregg did not fail to observe, took some time before it started to exploit the topic of the Mutiny
Gregg is very clearly in tune with the ideological turn shown by the majority of these novels, to the point that she harshly condemns the works that may occasionally and partially discard the monolithic representation of patriotism. iv Despite this, she is rather skeptical of the literary quality of these novels. Her assessment reflects the widening divide that came to mark the difference between high literature and popular literature between the middle and the end of the 19th century: the inclination towards naturalistic, psychological realism and later the modernist problematization of artistic language was identified as the distinctive quality of high literature; by contrast, the development of subgenres that relied on formulaic structures, stock characters and exploited specific ingredients such as mystery, sensationalism, romance, became increasingly associated with low-brow popular literature, whose circulation increased with the emergence of the “instant books” inspired by topical events and the cheap “penny dreadful”
Summary
Victorian popular fiction’s omnivorous appetite for themes and settings could not overlook imperial life and India in particular, the colony that most contributed through its ‘literarization’ (Booker, 1997:105) to shape colonial discourse. Iv Despite this, she is rather skeptical of the literary quality of these novels Her assessment reflects the widening divide that came to mark the difference between high literature and popular literature between the middle and the end of the 19th century: the inclination towards naturalistic, psychological realism and later the modernist problematization of artistic language was identified as the distinctive quality of high literature; by contrast, the development of subgenres that relied on formulaic structures, stock characters and exploited specific ingredients such as mystery, sensationalism, romance, became increasingly associated with low-brow popular literature, whose circulation increased with the emergence of the “instant books” inspired by topical events and the cheap “penny dreadful”
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