Our third talk is now live on our YouTube Playlist “YRI Lecture Series”!
The early modern period was the time of both dramatic colonial expansion and the rise of print culture. This presentation investigates how early modern print contributed to the narratives of “otherness”, the development of the concept of race, and the legitimisation of oppression and inequality. It examines how racial constructs and colonial ideologies were employed to represent the Indian subcontinent and its inhabitants in the British Isles.
The portrayal of India moved from “very pleasant and rare matters” to “naturally unstable, ignorant of their own interests” inhabitants. The research proposes that the narrative transformation in the pre-colonial period acted as a precursor to the material colonial processes. The “conceptual process” of colonisation was disseminated through print culture. The research explores the spread of racial representations in pamphlets, travel accounts, and ballads.
The period from 1591 to 1790 provides a framework for studying the dissemination of racial representations. The project examines the availability and circulation of English sources and their reception in early modern print culture. The study demonstrates a pluralistic and interactional comparative approach to public discourse and the formation of narratives. It contributes to early modern transcultural print history, postcolonial theory, and pre-modern critical race studies.