Missionary Writing and Empire, 1800–1860 (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, Series Number 38)

Book info: Missionary Writing and Empire, 1800–1860 (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, Series Number 38) (Paperback, 280 pages) – Cambridge University Press, 2007. Language: English.

Arguing that missionaries occupied ambiguous positions in colonial cultures, Anna Johnson analyzes missionary writing under the aegis of the British Empire. Johnson reveals how missionaries were caught between imperial and religious interests through an examination of texts published by the largest and most influential nineteenth-century evangelical institution, the London Missionary Society. Texts from Indian, Polynesian, and Australian missions are also examined to highlight their representation of nineteenth-century evangelical activity in relationship to gender, colonialism, and race. About the Author Anna Johnston is Lecturer in Australian and Postcolonial Literature in the School of English, Journalism, and European Languages at the University of Tasmania. She is the co-editor of In Transit: Travel, Text, Empire (Peter Lang 2002) with Helen Gilbert, and has published articles on missionary writing, postcolonial literature, and autobiography.