The Rural Turn in Contemporary Writing by Black and Asian Britons

Revisiting Mansfield Park: The Critical and Literary Legacies of Edward W. Said’s Essay “Jane Austen and Empire” inCulture and Imperialism(1993)

“…I allude to Naipaul to illustrate the extent to which Said's essay has shaped and informed subsequent literary depictions of country houses' link to empire. Published while "Jane Austen and Empire" was in gestation, V. S. Naipaul's novel The Enigma of Arrival (1987) is a key link in the chain: it inaugurated a tradition of rural writing by black and Asian Britons, 90 who often experience the countryside as a fiercely guarded site of national belonging. 91 It is uncertain what Naipaul's novel might have looked like had the author been privy to Said's exploration of the literary implications of country houses' material connection to empire.…”

“…Like The Enigma of Arrival, "Revisiting Mansfield Park" should be read as a form of postcolonial pastoral, and one that is nuanced by Said's seminal intervention into discussions about country houses' colonial histories. 112 Naipaul establishes only temporal and speculative circumstantial links between his landlord and colonial wealth. Agard emphasizes Mansfield Park's direct material connection with sugar wealth and country house ownership, also condemning historical amnesia about such riches' unsavory origin.…”