Description
Book SynopsisReveals the role masochistic forms of voluntary suffering played in late-nineteenth-century British thinking about imperial politics and class identity. This book shows how the ideological and psychological dynamics of empire, particularly its reorganization of class identities at the colonial periphery, depended on figurations of masochism.
Trade Review"In this elegant study, Kucich demonstrates the possibility of mutually implicating psychoanalytic theories, literary texts, and colonial discourses of race and class without losing sight of the specificity of each of these areas. In addition, he offers up a theoretically supple account of how masochistic fantasy can serve as a 'switching point' between otherwise disparate codes of thought and speech ... [H]e shows how relational theories of masochism can be productive as a supplement to, or substitute for, Freudian ones; he reintroduces a more meticulous analysis of class into discussions of racial and sexual fantasy; and he offers illuminating readings of Rudyard Kipling, Olive Schreiner, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Joseph Conrad that clarify the stakes of current arguments over empire and over masochism... This is one of the best recent books on literature, empire, and fantasy this reviewer has encountered."--J. B. Jones, Central Connecticut State University, for Choice "Imperial Masochism [is] an important read for scholars who are open to stepping out of the established boundaries in order to tread new paths of inquiry."--Monica Ingber, In-Spire, Journal of Law, Politics and Societies "In his thought-provoking new book, John Kucich burnishes his reputation as one of the best critics we currently have bringing the insights of psychoanalysis to the interpretation of cultural history... Imperial Masochism is an important intervention in colonial discourse studies."--Dan Bivona, Modern Philology "In compelling case studies, Kucich analyses this rewriting and suggests convincingly the value of psychoanalysis to historicist literary criticism."--Mary Elizabeth Leighton, Nineteenth-Century Contexts
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix A Note on Texts xi INTRODUCTION: Fantasy and Ideology 1 Masochism in Context 4 What Is Masochistic Fantasy? 17 Multiple Masochisms 28 CHAPTER ONE: Melancholy Magic: Robert Louis Stevenson's Evangelical Anti-Imperialism 31 Masochistic Splitting in the Scottish Novels 36 Evangelicalism: Pain Is Power 47 Rewriting Social Class at the Periphery: South Seas Tales 59 Racial Projections 72 Anti-Imperialist Euphoria in the Samoan Civil War 76 The Reversibility of Masochistic Politics 84 CHAPTER TWO: Olive Schreiner's Preoedipal Dreams: Feminism, Class, and the South African War 86 The Clash of Pleasure Economies in The Story of an African Farm 90 New Woman Feminism 96 The Regeneration of Middle-Class Culture 107 Fantasizing about the Boers 113 Domestic Middle-Class Identity and the War over the War 124 Feminist Masochism, Class Regeneration, and Critical Disavowal 129 CHAPTER THREE: Sadomasochism and the Magical Group: Kipling's Middle-Class Imperialism 136 Sadomasochism, Bullying, and Omnipotence in Stalky & Co. 140 Magical Groups: Bullies, Victims, and Bystanders 151 Kim: The Magical Group as Imperial Agent 160 Magical Professionals in the Short Fiction 168 Evangelicalism and Middle-Class Unilateralism 182 Class Hostility, Classlessness, and the Magical Middle Class 188 CHAPTER FOUR: The Masochism of the Craft: Conrad's Imperial Professionalism 196 Varieties of Colonial Omnipotence 200 "In the Destructive Element Immerse" 210 Empathy as a Narcissistic Disorder 216 Class Magic and Class Melancholia 223 Professional Redemption 235 Masochistic Imperialism 244 CONCLUSION 247 Index 253
