Jeannette Duncan Imperialism

Sara Jeannette Duncan was among the greatest journalists of her times in Canada. She was very zealous and enthusiastic and was very objective in her approach as far as her journalistic career was concerned. Her connection with India was established when she married a British civil servant Everard Cotes who worked as a curator at a museum in Calcutta. India was thought to be an exotic land full of mysteries and fascination. It also attracted the attention of a whole range of writers from the west and Duncan was one among them. Her fiction dealt with the colonial India and the plight of the British communityliving there. Bharat BhushanMohanty in his book Edward W. Said’s Orientalism: A Critique opines that, “Representation constitutes the dominant theme of Orientalism” (35). Western

VimalDhawan and JiteshParikh contends that Duncan’s “consciousness distancing from her characters is chiefly guided by the imperial arrogance and it is distinctly felt in the treatment of characters. Thus, British characters receive over attention than the Indian characters that are usually ignored” (xii).

The Burnt Offering written by Sara Jeannette Duncan is a novel that deals with the theme of Indian national movement and imperialism. Although Duncan was a Canadian yet she made Indian imperialism her theme for the novel because she came to Indian sub-continent after her marriage and remained in India for a long time. Her affinities were however with the empire and not with the Indian subjects. She was also overtaken by the colonial discourse that was prevalent in India.

The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib is the story of transformation of Helen Brown, an English lady who comes to India with full enthusiasm but in the end gets transformed herself. The perils of the life of British in India are dealt with in the novel. The novel from the very beginning seems to be overshadowed by the pre-conceived notions about India and the