It is tempting to summarize Ania Loomba's writings in "Gender, Sexuality and Colonial Discourse," as simply an account of the 17th, 18th and 19th century European empire's subjugation of non-Western peoples, through the manipulation of sexual, racial and class imagery in literature. Nevertheless, Loomba's analysis brings to light a more troubling dynamic within that, perhaps all too obvious, historic legacy. It seems that her underlying idea is not that Europeans somehow deliberately reconstructed reality in this way, but rather that they, like us, were locked into a way of thinking about, and imagining what they were doing, in order to justify it. This is historically very important ground, and all the more troubling, because our own language and discourse follows from it. Through the examination of colonial discourse, Loomba explores various related patterns of race, gender and class oppression, and provides glimpses of similar tendencies in post-colonial civilizationùeven to the present.
In the representation of non-European lands and peoples, the dominant imagery in enlightenment literature is that of the feminine form. "Thus, from the beginning of the colonial period till its end (and beyond), female bodies symbolize the conquered land". While varied, the imagery sets the female apart from the male in such a way that the colonizing power justifies its domination. For example, in Africa the "barbarity of native men becomes a major justification for imperial rule." In Asia, the male figure would frequently be either demonized or effeminized, necessitating the female figure's "rescue" by the "courteous European."
Loomba explores the relationship of the image of the vulnerable female with deviant sexuality and racial conflict in colonial discourse as well. She notes that "[r]enaissance travel writings and plays repeatedly connect deviant sexuality with racial and cultural outsiders and far away placesà . Thus n...