Exposure and Development

The popular nineteenth-century expression, “the sun never sets on the British Empire,” encapsulates the established association of the sun with the reach of the empire and with the mission of British imperialism. ² This mission included “images that show the natives being freed from despotic rule, raised from their ignorance, and saved from cruel and barbarous practices. These vignettes tell of the civilizing mission, which is primarily a story about the colonizing culture as an emissary of light” (Sharpe 100). The story of imperialism includes the story of “the colonizing culture” representing and bringing “civilizing” light to the “natives.” In addition, as Gayatri Spivak reminds us, “imperialism, understood as England’s social mission, was a crucial part of the cultural representation of England to the English. The role of literature in the production of cultural representation should not be ignored” (269). ³ The story of imperialism then, not only instructs the colonized but also instructs the English, justifying imperialism, and contributing to the shape of English national identity and narrative formation. ³