In this Book
- The Alchemy of Empire: Abject Materials and the Technologies of Colonialism
- Book
- 2016
- Published by: Fordham University Press
summary
Named 'Top 6' South Asia studies publications of 2016 by the British Association for South Asian Studies
The Alchemy of Empire unravels the non-European origins of Enlightenment science. Focusing on the abject materials of empire-building, this study traces the genealogies of substances like mud, mortar, ice, and paper, as well as forms of knowledge like inoculation. Showing how East India Company employees deployed the paradigm of alchemy in order to make sense of the new worlds they confronted, Rajani Sudan argues that the Enlightenment was born largely out of Europe's (and Britain's) sense of insecurity and inferiority in the early modern world. Plumbing the depths of the imperial archive, Sudan uncovers the history of the British Enlightenment in the literary artifacts of the long eighteenth century, from the correspondence of the East India Company and the papers of the Royal Society to the poetry of Alexander Pope and the novels of Jane Austen.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. i-vi
- One: The Alchemy of Empire
- pp. 23-48
- Two: Mortar and the Making of Madras
- pp. 49-74
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 159-162
- Bibliography
- pp. 201-212
Additional Information
ISBN
9780823270729
Related ISBN(s)
9780823270675
MARC Record
OCLC
930364393
Pages
232
Launched on MUSE
2016-04-25
Language
English
Open Access
No