Exploring the Non-Human and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Writings
Colonial Idols in British Curation and Culture
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:16th Jul '26
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Exploring the Non-Human and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Writings: Colonial Idols in British Curation and Culture examines the curatorial and literary representations of colonial idols in British writings of the long nineteenth century as they emerged in the imperial heartland as alien art, invasive commodities, and vessels of affect.
The book studies the colonial anxieties reflected in the narratives surrounding idol-objects as they shifted both geographically and epistemologically—from being objects of worship to objects of display. It further studies the acquisitory material surrounding idol collections at British museums, focusing on the Victoria and Albert Museum (and its Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886) and the London Missionary Society museum (and its Orient in London Exhibition, 1908)—unpacking the narrative variations between a national repository of art/design and another operating within an evangelizing arc. The latter segment shows how the fictional portrayal of idols as insurgent automatons and freak-like vehicles of avarice critiques British exploitative colonial practice.
This study crucially excavates the colonial context of the idol’s cultural emergence, significant today given its renewed potency within contemporary South Asian politico-cultural discourses.
Bhattacharjee's book connects an impressive range of sources—museum catalogues and periodical advertisements to fiction and art—examining idol-objects and their unexpected appearances in nineteenth-century literature and culture. Bhattacharjee shows how idol-objects complicated and disrupted cultural hierarchies, moving across boundaries/categories with varying levels of agency and power.
~Carolyn Oulton, Professor of Victorian Literature, Co-Director, International Centre for Victorian Women Writers, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK
Bhattacharjee's exhaustively researched volume is a masterful study of British responses to Hindu art and offers a wealth of new resources and original insights. No one invested in museum history, Indian material culture, transimperial literature, or the psychology of cross-cultural exchange can ignore this uniquely informative work.
~Florence Boos, Professor Emerita, University of Iowa, USA
This book is a veritable treasure trove of “idol objects” which bring social, economic, political, and cultural histories alive in myriad ways. If anyone doubts that material culture is positively charismatic, they have only to dig into the rich, unsettling archive Bhattacharjee makes available here. Her investigation of the texts and spaces animated by a wide range of hybrid artifacts illustrates how the British imperial project gave rise to a dominion of things: a magical, monstrous universe with the power to enthrall and bedevil in metropole and colony alike.
~Antoinette Burton, Professor of History and Swanlund Endowed Chair, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2025; Department of History, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
ISBN: 9780367512569
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 610g
230 pages