Colonial Odysseys

This book examines narratives from 1890 to 1940, exploring themes of death and existence through the lens of colonial journeys. Colonial Odysseys offers profound insights.

This elegantly written and powerfully argued book focuses on narratives published in English between 1890 and 1940, where protagonists journey from the familiar world of Europe to alien colonial worlds. Works such as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out, and E. M. Forster's A Passage to India explore the intricate relationship between Britain and its colonies during the height of the British Empire. David Adams emphasizes that these narratives, due to their structure and literary allusions, should also be read in relation to the epic tradition.

In Colonial Odysseys, Adams reveals that the underlying concerns of these narratives often transcend political or literary themes, delving into more metaphysical realms. Each narrative features a major character whose journey leads to death, prompting readers to reflect on the negation of existence. This recurring motif transforms imaginative encounters with distant colonies into a metaphorical odyssey, with death serving as an inevitable destination.

By expanding on postcolonial and Marxist theories through the philosophy of Hans Blumenberg, Adams identifies this preoccupation with mortality as indicative of secular culture's struggle to find meaning in death. He argues that this concern shapes modernist narratives, reflecting or critiquing imperial culture, as authors project their anxieties regarding the individual's relationship to the absolute onto the British imperial experience.