The symbolic empire and the history of racial inequality
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2145880 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Caroline Knowles (Concordia University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1996 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 896-911 |
| Publication date | 1996-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01419870.1996.9993941 |
| OpenAlex | W2099093507 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 9 |
Historiography is routinely employed to support contemporary accounts of racial inequality. Subjecting Khan's (1991) exploration of the history of East Indians1 in Canada (1903-47) to critical analysis this article argues that 'empire' is used as a narrative and symbolic device. But the symbolic empire is a constrained analytic tool which can only produce a circumscribed account of race and a limited form of race politics. By substituting the symbolic empire with an empire invoked as an administrative device, registered in political discourses, the symbolic empire becomes two nationhoods-in-process. These two very different nation-building processes, one Indian the other Canadian, are connected. The Canadian nation was constructed as a white enterprise in a defensive action against the immigration of East Indians who were concurrently awarded a second-class citizenship by Britain. This article shows how the Canadian discourse on alien immigrants was a device used to affirm its own (white) identity. It shows how the historical themes of exclusion and marginalization may be mobilized to develop a form of race politics in the present
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Citizenship · Empire · Historiography · Identity (music · Immigration · Inequality · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Race (biology · Racism · Sociology · The Symbolic · White (mutation · Canadian Identity and History · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,12 |
| Citation span | 2000 - 2011 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |