“Strange yet familiar”: Domesticity and adventure in British colonial discourse

Neo-Victorianism, settler (post)colonialism and domesticity in Patrick White’s Voss

“…According to Andrew Hassam (1997: 64), colonialism and colonization are distinguished by adherence to the Victorian “differentiat[ion]” between “the practices of travel and the practices of dwelling”. Travel, Hassam suggests, presupposes the performance of heroic masculinity in exploring or conquering the frontiers of Empire, and its model is to be found in adventure narratives; dwelling relies on domestic femininity to make and preserve a home and is articulated in Victorian realism.…”

“…Travel, Hassam suggests, presupposes the performance of heroic masculinity in exploring or conquering the frontiers of Empire, and its model is to be found in adventure narratives; dwelling relies on domestic femininity to make and preserve a home and is articulated in Victorian realism. Yet the experience of colonization by migration and settlement “will not easily fit either model” (Hassam, 1997: 66): both men and women must travel and both men and women must contribute to setting up home in the place of arrival. Even if it is preceded by adventurous undertakings — not least a long sea passage, confrontation with the natives, the taming of recalcitrant nature — nevertheless the ultimate goal of colonization is a domestic one.…”