Declining Empire In A View Of Empire At The Sunset

Caryl Phillips is regarded as one of the best known and most talented British writers of his generation.Because of his complicated identity and specific personal experience,Phillips always pays more attention to British empire and marginal groups in empire in his works.A View of Empire at the Sunset,his latest novel,represents British empire during the later 30 years after the death of Queen Victoria from the point of view of a creole female.This thesis will make an analysis on the declining empire reflected in it from the perspective of post-colonialism and further its significance in the modern society.The thesis is divided into six chapters.Chapter One will make a brief introduction to Caryl Phillips,the English Caribbean writer and A View of Empire at the Sunset,researches on Phillips's works at home and abroad,and then theoretical basis and structure of this thesis.Chapter Two analyzes concrete representation of the declining empire.With the World War as a trigger,empire lost its direct control over some territories in the West Indies because of intensifying independence movements of blacks.At the same time,empire experienced an economic recession which can be seen from the depression of London.Imperial ideology collapsed because of blacks' consciousness awakening and whites' question.Chapter Three focuses on legacy of empire.Although the decline of empire was a foregone conclusion,its imperial ideology still exerted influence on people of different ethnic groups.English pastoral scenery became the carrier of imperial ideology and incorporated its viewers into imperial discourse.Inspired by imperial heroism,whites projected their colonial desire on people and things related to the West Indies.As for blacks and creoles,they internalized white supremacy and applied it into their daily lives.The remains of imperial ideology reveals that empire didn't give up its control because of its decline,but exercised it in a more secretive way.Chapter Four analyzes identity problems of different ethnic groups in the declining empire.The conflict between decline of empire and remains of imperial ideology made the whole empire in a complete disorder which plunged all ethnic groups into identity anxiety.Without blacks as "the other",whites were stuck into identity anxiety.Blacks strove to get rid of servility and reconnected their relationship with Africa and further established their identity.Creoles in the middle chose to reconcile different facets of their plural identity.Chapter Five is Phillips's view on the declining empire.Empire didn't come to an end because of its decline,but entered into a neo-colonial era during which the conflict among different cultures and ethnic groups were intensified.In order to cope with this chaotic situation,Phillips suggests to accept influence of different culture and establish a hybrid cultural identity.Chapter Six is the conclusion.By revealing chaos in the declining empire,Caryl Phillips gives a suggestion to people in modern multicultural society:achieve symbiosis with acknowledgement of different cultures.