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First published in 1908, Farley pioneering essay on the subject of Anglo Indian literature, by this point had never been attempted to be explored in such detail at the time of winning the coveted Cambridge University Le Bas Prize Essay, 1907. Focusing on prominent Anglo English writers, such as Rudyard Kipling, Farley Oaten and examining the plethora of their work in the context of the British Raj.

This book addresses the idea of'civility'as a manifestation of the fluidity and ambivalence of imperial power as reflected in British colonial literature and culture. Discussions of Anglo-Indian romances of 1880-1900, E.M. Forster's The Life to Come and Leonard Woolf's writings show how the appeal to civility had a significant effect on the constitution of colonial subject-hood and reveals'civility'as an ideal trope for the ambivalence of imperial power itself.

Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues demonstrates the continuing validity of the colonial paradigm as it maps the geographical, political, and imaginative space of'India/Indies'from the seventeenth century to the present. Breaking new ground in postcolonial studies, Jyotsna Singh highlights the interconnections among early modern colonial encounters, later manifestations in the Raj and their lingering influence in the postcolonial Indian nationalist state. Singh challenges the assumption of eye-witness accounts and unmeditated experiences implcit in colonial representational practices, and often left unchallenged in the postcolonial era. Essential introductory reading for students and academics, Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues re-evaluates the following texts: • seventeenth century travel narratives about India • eighteenth century'nabob'texts • letters of the Orientalist, Sir William Jones • reviews of Shakespearean productions in Calcutta and postcolonial Indo-Anglian novels