Origins of African Stereotypes in British Colonial Novels

Abstract

The writings of European racial and colonial theorists, ethnocentric anthropologists, and popular adventurers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries permit one to discover which stereotypes came together to form both the British and French literary images of Africans. England will be dealt with first, since the writings of Robert Knox—a Scottish anatomist devoted almost exclusively to the race question—were known by Arthur de Gobineau, who will serve as the starting point for a discussion of French pseudo-scientific racism in the next chapter. In the estimation of Philip Curtin, the basic premises of Knox were incorporated recognisably into the theories of Gobineau, for there was a fair amount of awareness and exchange between the racist theoreticians of both countries.¹