Abstract
Recent work in British studies suggests that the project of historicizing the institutions and cultural practices of British imperialism is crucial to understanding metropolitan society in the nineteenth century. Monographs by Catherine Hall, Thomas C. Holt, and Jenny Sharpe, together with the impressive nineteen-volume series on Studies in Imperial Culture, edited by John Mackenzie-to name just a few examples of scholarly production in this field-have effectively relocated the operations of imperial culture at the heart of the empire itself. By scrutinizing arenas as diverse as the English novel, governmental policy making at the highest levels, and the ephemera of consumer culture, scholars of the Victorian period are in the process of giving historical weight and evidentiary depth to Edward Said's claim that we are at a point in our work when we can no longer ignore empires and the imperial context in our studies. The origins of the London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW), its concern for Indian women in the zenana (sex-segregated spaces), and the embeddedness of its institutional development in Victorian imperial mentalities is one discrete example of how ostensibly domestic institutions were bound up with the empire and its projects in nineteenth-century Britain. As this essay will demonstrate, the conviction that Indian women were trapped in the sunless, airless, and allegedly unhygienic Oriental zenana motivated the institutionalization of women's medicine and was crucial to the professionalization of women doctors in Victorian Britain. One need only scratch the surface of the archive of British women's entry into the medical profession to find traces of the colonial concerns that motivated some of its leading lights.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 368-397 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| Journal | Journal of British Studies |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 1996 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- History
Cite this
Contesting the Zenana : The mission to make lady doctors for India, 1874-1885. / Burton, Antoinette.
In: Journal of British Studies, Vol. 35, No. 3, 07.1996, p. 368-397.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Contesting the Zenana
T2 - The mission to make lady doctors for India, 1874-1885
AU - Burton, Antoinette
PY - 1996/7
Y1 - 1996/7
N2 - Recent work in British studies suggests that the project of historicizing the institutions and cultural practices of British imperialism is crucial to understanding metropolitan society in the nineteenth century. Monographs by Catherine Hall, Thomas C. Holt, and Jenny Sharpe, together with the impressive nineteen-volume series on Studies in Imperial Culture, edited by John Mackenzie-to name just a few examples of scholarly production in this field-have effectively relocated the operations of imperial culture at the heart of the empire itself. By scrutinizing arenas as diverse as the English novel, governmental policy making at the highest levels, and the ephemera of consumer culture, scholars of the Victorian period are in the process of giving historical weight and evidentiary depth to Edward Said's claim that we are at a point in our work when we can no longer ignore empires and the imperial context in our studies. The origins of the London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW), its concern for Indian women in the zenana (sex-segregated spaces), and the embeddedness of its institutional development in Victorian imperial mentalities is one discrete example of how ostensibly domestic institutions were bound up with the empire and its projects in nineteenth-century Britain. As this essay will demonstrate, the conviction that Indian women were trapped in the sunless, airless, and allegedly unhygienic Oriental zenana motivated the institutionalization of women's medicine and was crucial to the professionalization of women doctors in Victorian Britain. One need only scratch the surface of the archive of British women's entry into the medical profession to find traces of the colonial concerns that motivated some of its leading lights.
AB - Recent work in British studies suggests that the project of historicizing the institutions and cultural practices of British imperialism is crucial to understanding metropolitan society in the nineteenth century. Monographs by Catherine Hall, Thomas C. Holt, and Jenny Sharpe, together with the impressive nineteen-volume series on Studies in Imperial Culture, edited by John Mackenzie-to name just a few examples of scholarly production in this field-have effectively relocated the operations of imperial culture at the heart of the empire itself. By scrutinizing arenas as diverse as the English novel, governmental policy making at the highest levels, and the ephemera of consumer culture, scholars of the Victorian period are in the process of giving historical weight and evidentiary depth to Edward Said's claim that we are at a point in our work when we can no longer ignore empires and the imperial context in our studies. The origins of the London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW), its concern for Indian women in the zenana (sex-segregated spaces), and the embeddedness of its institutional development in Victorian imperial mentalities is one discrete example of how ostensibly domestic institutions were bound up with the empire and its projects in nineteenth-century Britain. As this essay will demonstrate, the conviction that Indian women were trapped in the sunless, airless, and allegedly unhygienic Oriental zenana motivated the institutionalization of women's medicine and was crucial to the professionalization of women doctors in Victorian Britain. One need only scratch the surface of the archive of British women's entry into the medical profession to find traces of the colonial concerns that motivated some of its leading lights.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/2142/2292
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949135220&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84949135220&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/386112
DO - 10.1086/386112
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84949135220
VL - 35
SP - 368
EP - 397
JO - Journal of British Studies
JF - Journal of British Studies
SN - 0021-9371
IS - 3
ER -