ABSTRACT
One of the most important tropes in colonial fiction is that of the mirror. In these stories of Haggard’s, the significance of the Other lies in the fact that he is symbolic of something that the Western mind must learn about itself. The journey across space is nothing less than a surreal journey into the self: the savage reveals the truth of the white man’s self, if he only has eyes to see it. ‘Civilisation is only savagery silverygilt’, Haggard pronounces in the introduction to Allan Quatermain, ‘we must look to the…savage portions of our nature if we would really understand ourselves’ (Haggard, 1931:14). We should beware of these rhetorical manoeuvres; for not only does this popular psychology of colonial fiction effect an insidious naturalisation of what are enforced dyadic relations, it also renders passive the ‘savage’ reflection of man.
