Nation-Space in Enlightenment Britain: An Archaeology of Empire

285 Pages·2019·9.025 MB·English

by  Mita Choudhury

Nation-Space in
Enlightenment Britain
Nation-Space in Enlightenment Britain: An Archaeology of Empire is
a provocative intervention that extends the parameters of ongoing di-
alogues about British identity during the Enlightenment. Drawing on
institutional imperatives and theatrical, artistic, and other cultural pro-
ductions, this book describes how British identity emerges not in spite
of but due to its fluid, volatile, and subversive impulses and expressions.
The imperial establishment—codified in the logics of the corporation,
the academy, the cathedral, the theater, as well the private parlor or
garden—derives its power from scripting and championing a resistance
to precisely those subversive elements which threaten or undermine the
foundations of order and liberalism in civil society. Choudhury argues
that imperial Britain can best be understood in terms of this culture’s
investment in spatial alignments which celebrated a radial interface with
remote points of commercial interest. The volume shows that Daniel
Defoe, Arthur Onslow, David Garrick, Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander,
Hans Sloane, Francis Barber, Samuel Johnson, and George Frideric
Handel were not only part of a dazzling lineup of the empire’s architects.
In retrospect, their contributions reflect a remarkably modern pattern:
the spatial dimension of corporate culture, and this culture’s dependence
on, and thus its collusion with, global commerce.
Mita Choudhury, at Purdue University Northwest since 2005, began
her career teaching Shakespeare at St. Lawrence University and, subse-
quently, as assistant professor, she taught drama at New York University’s
Tisch School of the Arts. Author of Interculturalism and Resistance in the
London Theatre, 1660–1800: Performance, Identity, Empire ( Bucknell
2000) and coeditor of Monstrous Dreams of Reason: Body, Self, and
Other in the Enlightenment (Bucknell 2002), her current work explores
the spatial dimension of imperial formations in Enlightenment Britain.
Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature
15 Wordsworth Before Coleridge
The Growth of the Poet’s Philosophical Mind, 1785–1797
Mark Bruhn
16 Political Economy, Literature & the Formation of Knowledge,
1720–1850
Richard Adelman & Catherine Packham
17 Errors and Reconciliations
Marriage in the Plays and Novels of Henry Fielding
Anaclara Castro-Santana
18 Reimagining Society in 18th Century French Literature
Happiness and Human Rights
Jonas Ross Kjærgård
19 On Declaring Love
Eighteenth-Century Literature and Jane Austen
Fred Parker
20 Before Crusoe
Defoe, Voice, and the Ministry
Penny Pritchard
21 Moral Cupidity and Lettres de Cachet in Diderot’s Writing
Jennifer Vanderheyden
22 Nation-Space in Enlightenment Britain
An Archaeology of Empire
Mita Choudhury
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www. routledge.com
Nation-Space in
Enlightenment Britain
An Archaeology of Empire
Mita Choudhury
First published 2019
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2019 Taylor & Francis
The right of Mita Choudhury to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Choudhury, Mita, 1958– author.
Title: Nation-space in Enlightenment Britain : an archaeology of
empire / Mita Choudhury.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. |
Series: Routledge studies in eighteenth-century literature ; 22 |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019001183 (print) | LCCN 2019005750
(ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: English literature—18th century—History and
criticism. | National characteristics, British, in literature.
Classification: LCC PR448.N38 (ebook) | LCC PR448.N38 C46
2019 (print) | DDC 820.9/3584107—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019001183
ISBN: 978-0-8153-6365-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-10875-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
For Makhan Lal Choudhury, 1900–1987

Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Prologue: Framing the Narrative of Space 1
1 The Spatial Dimension of Enlightenment Time 15
2 Riot-Space: A Brief Archaeology of Scripted,
Unscripted, and Chaotic Performances 50
3 Empires Within: The Spatial Dimension of the
Johnsonian Oikos 88
4 Cultural Logic of Museology I: A Genealogy of the
Global “Endeavor” 124
5 Cultural Logic of Museology II: The Spatial
Dimension of Corporate Identity 172
Epilogue: In Memoriam: Random Thoughts on
Archaeological Fragments 224
Bibliography 251
Index 263

List of Figures
2.1 The Military Prophet, 1750. Anonymous. Etching and
Engraving. © British Library Board. Cup.21.g.37/38 57
2.2 Plundering the King’s Cellar at Paris, 1794, Johann
Zoffany, G erman, 1733–1810, Oil on Canvas,
39 × 50 inches (99.06 × 127 cm), Wadsworth Atheneum
Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. The Ella Gallup Sumner
and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1984.49 67
2.3 View of the Encampment in the Museum Garden,
5 August 1780. ©The Trustees of the British Museum 73
2.4 The Encampment on Blackheath, 1780. ©The Trustees
of the British Museum 74
2.5 Encampment in the Museum Garden, 1780 (A Different
View). ©The Trustees of the British Museum 75
2.6 A Trip to Blackheath. ©The Trustees of the British Museum 76
4.1 Pen and Ink Drawing, a View of the Rear of Montagu
House and on its North Side. Presumably Early
Eighteenth Century. Unknown Artist and Provenance.
©The Trustees of the British Museum 127
4.2 Hans Sloane’s Pharmaceutical Cabinet. ©The Trustees
of the British Museum 129
4.3 Sir Joseph Banks’ Shells, drawer 6, Cowrie Collection.
© The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London 132
4.4 Shoes Collected by Hans Sloane. ©The Trustees of the
British Museum 133
4.5 John Hamilton Mortimer (1740–1779), Captain James
Cook, Sir Joseph Banks, Lord Sandwich, Dr. Daniel
Solander and Dr. John Hawksworth, Oil on
canvas by John Hamilton Mortimer, c. 1771. nla.
pic-an7351768. © National Library of Australia 149
5.1 View of the Front and Courtyard of Montagu House
(South Prospect), Etching and Engraving, 1728.
© Trustees of the British Museum 173
5.2 Minutes of the Committee Meeting Held at Montagu
House on 22 February 1754, Page 1. © Trustees of the
British Museum 180