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Colonial Capitalism

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Part of the book series: New Comparisons in World Literature ((NCWL))

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Abstract

This chapter outlines the irruption of capitalism in the colonies during the nineteenth-century age of globalisation, showing how key beliefs of modern economics—such as private investment, market freedom, and competition—developed alongside empire. Historical fiction by Amitav Ghosh (India and China), Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Dutch East Indies), Kiana Davenport (Hawai’i), Kim Scott (Australia), and Tina Makereti (New Zealand) details the reproduction of British class hierarchies and racism which facilitated labour exploitation and primitive accumulation. In the early implementation of land, labour, and investment policies biased toward profiting the few at the expense of the many, this fiction reveals the justification of extreme wealth and the criminalisation of the poor, familiar in the post-financial-crisis focus on widening inequality.

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  1. University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Melissa Kennedy

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  1. Melissa Kennedy
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Kennedy, M. (2017). Colonial Capitalism. In: Narratives of Inequality. New Comparisons in World Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59957-1_2

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