A Post-colonial Study On Tennyson’s Poetry

Tennyson is one of the most representative poets in the Victorian era.He succeeded William Wordsworth and became the Poet Laureate in 1850.Due to his inheritance from the Romanticism his early poetry is lyrical and full of imagination.These qualities are reflected widely in his poems concerning the Orient.Under the influence of traditional Orientalism,these poems are usually full of prejudice and imagination on the exoticism of the Orient.At the later stage of his career as a poet,many of his poems are the reflection of Victorian social realities.The Victorian era was the peak of British Empire,as the Poet Laureate,poetry was a medium to express his patriotic feelings and imperialist sentiment.With the maturity of Post-colonialism theory in 1970 s,Orientalism and Imperialism in Tennyson’s poetry started to draw critics’ attention and became one promising area.Combining the Victorian social background and Tennyson’s personal experience,this thesis intends to employ the Post-colonial theory to analyze the Orientalism and Imperialism in Tennyson’s poetry.This thesis has three parts.The first part includes a brief introduction on Tennyson and his poetry,literature review,research questions and the feasibility of Post-colonialism study on Tennyson’s poetry.The second part as the major part contains three chapters.The first chapter analyzes the eroticization of the Orient that has been expressed by the colonial desire and surveillance on the orient in Tennyson’s orientalist poetry.The second chapter talks about the wealth in the Orient.Gold as treasure mark appears mainly as decorative elements rather than currency.This implies that the Orient is a place of financial opportunity for the Westerners.What is more,the comparison between the primitive economy pattern of the Orient and the progressive economy pattern of the Occident highlights the celebrated western civilization thus the imperial and colonial policy could be justified.The last chapter analyzes Tennyson’s defence and advocacy of Imperialism.Victorian era is the peak of British Empire,during that time “civilization”,“progress” and the course of British Empire were widely advocated and celebrated.Tennyson is quite sensitive to that and considers the Materialism that dominating the English society as the major detriment to the British Empire course.To fight against Materialism,Tennyson created the Imperial hero King Arthur.What’s more,Tennyson created many Laureate verses to endorse the justification of the British Empire.The British Empire was personified as a mother whose image and characters echoed with Queen Victoria.Thus the relationship between the British Empire and its colonies had been transferred as parenthood through which the distinguished conflicts could be mitigated.Last part is conclusion.Through these analyses,we could see his imagination and prejudice on the Orient are based on his inheritance of the traditional Orientalism.Tennyson is not a blind flatterer of British Empire but a responsible poet of patriotism.He keenly realized the problems in English society,but still believed that these problems could be solved with the development of British Empire.This is a confinement enforced by the time on him.