Writing Empire: Latin Quotations in Texts on the British Empire

This study explores instances of Latin citation in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century colonial writing (Kipling, Conrad and Orwell), and then also in the postmodern/postcolonial work of Friel and Stoppard. The thesis makes two interlocking cases: first there is the intertextual case for how the investigation of Latin quotation in English texts on the British Empire makes possible a reconsideration of those same colonial or postcolonial texts, and of the value or interpretation they place upon the colonial experience. Second there is the methodological case for how the Latin quotations act as ‘loopholes’ within the text which can be used to generate meanings against the grain. The thesis makes important contributions to subfields within colonial discourse analysis and postcolonial critique, expanding our understanding of classical references within British imperial discourse and imperial learning, of post/colonial irony, and of the intertextual values and uses of citation.