Surrender and Sacrifice: Imperial Subjugation and the Coloured Mistress in Robin Jenkins’s The Expatriates and “Imelda and the Miserly Scot”.

Abstract

This article discusses Robin Jenkins’s critical treatment of the imperial theme in his novels and short stories set outside of Scotland, and then goes on to analyse his portrayal of inter-racial relationships in The Expatriates and “Imelda and the Miserly Scot” from a postcolonial and feminist angle. The two stories are both set in Kalimantan and focus on the relationships of two Scotsmen with coloured women; these relationships clearly symbolise relations between Empire and colony, and carry heavy overtones of racial, economic and sexual exploitation. Simultaneously, these sexual liaisons also showcase in their development a fixed patriarchal structure despite offering different resolutions to the conflict of power between colonialist and native/man and woman. Different critical perspectives on the relationship between feminism and postcolonialism are discussed, and the seminal theorising of Edward Said placed within the context of feminist ideas. The idea of “double colonisation” (Ashcroft et al. 1995: 250) is particularly relevant to the ways in which Jenkins presents the two inter-racial affairs. Ultimately, The Expatriates is seen to reaffirm both the imperial and the patriarchal construct, while “Imelda and the Miserly Scot” is shown to present a clear challenge to both imperial and patriarchal authority.

Keywords: Robin Jenkins, postcolonialism, feminism, inter-racial affair, double colonisation