Humanizing the Empire and De-humanizing the Colonies: Tropicality and an Indigenous Feminist Rereading of British Colonization and Slave Trade in George Colman’s Inkle and Yarico

doi:10.21608/jarts.2021.66474.1102

Humanizing the Empire and De-humanizing the Colonies: Tropicality and an Indigenous Feminist Rereading of British Colonization and Slave Trade in George Colman’s Inkle and Yarico

Document Type : Original Article

10.21608/jarts.2021.66474.1102

Abstract

George Colman’s Inkle and Yarico 1787 is regarded as an integral part of the eighteenth century anti-slavery literary discourse. This paper challenges the dominant critical perception of Colman’s Inkle and Yarico as an anti-slavery work and re-reads it as a dramatic attempt to defend slavery and by extension colonization. Colman achieves his goal through three calculated elements: dehumanization of the Indians, humanization of the English, distancing the English from slave trade. By applying the theory of tropicality, it becomes clear that the environment and population of the West Indies emerge as inferior (Other) to those of England (Self). Indigenous feminism enables us to avoid the romantic and sentimental trap and tap into Colman’s manipulation of Yarico’s power as an indigenous woman. Colman employs her power to sanctify Inkle, the colonizer and the representative of imperialism as the new master of the land and its inhabitants.

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