ABSTRACT

The language of contemporary cultural theory shows remarkable similarities with the patterns of thought which characterised Victorian racial theory. Far from being marked by a separation from the racialised thinking of the past, Colonial Desire shows we are operating in complicity with historical ways of viewing 'the other', both sexually and racially.

Colonial Desire is a controversial and bracing study of the history of Englishness and 'culture'. Robert Young argues that the theories advanced today about post-colonialism and ethnicity are disturbingly close to the colonial discourse of the nineteenth century. 'Englishness', Young argues, has been less fixed and stable than uncertain, fissured with difference and a desire for otherness.

chapter 1|26 pages

HYBRIDITY AND DIASPORA

chapter 2|26 pages

CULTURE AND THE HISTORY OF DIFFERENCE

chapter 3|32 pages

THE COMPLICITY OF CULTURE

chapter 4|26 pages

SEX AND INEQUALITY

chapter 6|18 pages

WHITE POWER, WHITE DESIRE

chapter 7|22 pages

COLONIALISM AND THE DESIRING MACHINE