The author of Equiano cleverly used Biblical references and deployed western/Christian values to force his readers to confront their blindness regarding slavery ("O, ye nominal Christians!").īy contrast, the historical reference points of Dean Mahomet's narrative avoid any negative judgment of British colonial expansion in India whatsoever. Equiano is a spirited autobiography with carefully poised arguments against the transatlantic slave-trade, and indeed, against slavery itself. Fischer's edition of the Travels, there is a substantial account of Mahomet's English experience (click on Part 3).Īs a literary text the Travels pales in comparison to, say, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, which was published just five years earlier, and which may have inspired Dean Mahomet to try his own hand at writing an autobiography. Dean Mahomet left a lasting legacy in his trans-culturation of "shampoo" (Hindi: "champna"), and it appears that the word and concept of shampooing (transformed somewhat from his usage, of course) came into widespread usage in the west through him. For one thing, the story Mahomet tells is of his life while he was still in India, and it often seems that the most interesting part of the story is actually Dean Mahomet's life after India and Ireland - it was only then that he separated from his patrons in Cork, and moved to England and started a series of businesses. In literary terms, it's probably fair to say that The Travels of Dean Mahomet isn't the greatest book. Rather, the goal is simply to think about how we might understand his rather unique book, The Travels of Dean Mahomet, in historical context. In what follows, I'm not so much interested in celebrating Dean Mahomet as a "hero" (I don't think he necessarily is one), nor would it mean much to condemn him as some kind of race-traitor. He married an Anglo-Irish woman, and was treated with respect by English and Anglo-Irish society around him. Having moved first to Cork, Ireland, and then London and finally Brighton, Mahomet opened first the first Indian restaurant in England, The Hindoostanee Coffee House, and then started a profitable business doing "shampoo baths" at the shore resort town of Brighton. For people who haven't heard of him, Dean Mahomet is the first Indian writer to have published a book in English, The Travels of Dean Mahomet (1794). Though I've known about Dean Mahomet for a long time, it wasn't until recently that I actually read through the free online version of edition of The Travels of Dean Mahomet, for a class I'm teaching.
0 kommentar(er)
