Colonial Encounter and Imperial Legacy in Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown

Author: Olivier Harenda | Pages: 59–75 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.60018/Hemi.VWRS7171

Abstract

The article explores the issues of colonial encounter as well as imperial legacy on the basis of Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown novel from 1966. The imperial project was heavily promoted by the authorities in the 19th century, but the dissolution of the Empire between the 1940s and the 1960s led to the emergence of a critical type of historical fiction crafted by British writers who experienced the imperial system at first hand. The Jewel in the Crown exemplifies complex attitudes as well as archetypal patterns among the colonisers and the natives in British India. The analysis shows that the coloniser is a failed figure who is unable to understand and co-exist with the colonised.

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Colonial Encounter and Imperial Legacy in Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown

Abstract