Description
Book SynopsisThe first substantial study of family correspondence and settler colonialism, Nothing to Write Home About elucidates the significance of trans-imperial intimacy, epistolary silence, and the everyday in laying the foundations of settler colonialism in British Columbia.
Trade Review"[...]seemingly disparate topics are interwoven with the central threads of settler colonialism and trans-imperial family relations to produce a cohesive and sophisticated analysis."
-- Erin Millions * Left History *
Laura Ishiguro has written a fine book. Her meticulous examination of colonial correspondence is engaging and illuminating. She displays a considerable sensitivity for the language used by white settlers to discursively claim British Columbia and normalise their presence there. Ishiguro is especially skilful in summarising her conclusions at the end of each chapter, fluently articulating the tangled voices of British settlers. -- Robert Hogg * The Ormsby Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part 1: Relative Distances
1 “Bind the Empire Together”: The Postal System, Family Letters, and British Columbia
2 “Affection Can Overstep Distance”: The Letter as Trans-Imperial Family
Part 2: The Colonial Commonplace
3 “Absolutely Nothing Going on”: Epistolary Emotion and Unremarkable Colonial Knowledge
4 “A Dreadful Little Glutton”: Settler Food Practices and the Epistolary Everyday
Part 3: Family Faultlines, Fractured Knowledge
5 “Irreparable Loss”: Family Rupture and Reconfiguration in Letters about Death
6 “Say Nothing”: Epistolary Gossip, Silence, and the Strategic Limits of Intimacy
Conclusion
Notes; Bibliography; Index
