The Burney family

Bakhtin, Theory of Mind, and Pedagogy: Cognitive Construction of Social Class

“…39 When Burney writes about people whom she admires or considers personally sympathetic, she finds ways of making them embed complex mental states even when they cannot do it in words. Mr Omai was a Tahitian who had been drawn into the Burney "family circle" 40 through the efforts of Frances's brother James. On several occasions in the journal, Mr Omai, who is portrayed as a perfect gentleman and "living con firma tion of the myth of the 'Noble Savage,'" 41 is shown to convey complex layering of social consciousness by his body language.…”