Post-Empire Imaginaries?: Anglophone Literature, History and the Demise of Empires

Invoking Jen Hill, Knopf shows that the Arctic space represented the limit of both the British Empire and human experience and that the role of Arctic exploration was to 'break ... this limit and transform it from an empty into an imperial space' (72). In support of the imperialistic basis of her analysis, Raiskin uses visual media to illustrate how this colonial tourism is based on the imperialist victories of the Second World War, utilising contested sites of patriotism, such as national identity and attitudes toward government and war to entice the potential traveller. To progress this assertion Meyer shows how the railway system of India embedded a British institution of transport and, much like books, education and motor vehicles, these represent imperial forms which allow the subaltern the opportunity to experience and participate in British culture vicariously.