Abstract
This chapter examines the Colonial Gothic supernatural stories of Margery Lawrence. Written at the height of British imperialism in the 1920s, Lawrence’s stories set in Rhodesia, Pemba, and Egypt subvert popular notions that Britain’s involvement with colonialism was beneficial for both colonists and colonizers alike. The chapter begins with a discussion of “Death Valley” (1924), a ghost story centered on a haunted cabin deep within the African jungle. The white ghost which haunts the dwelling symbolizes the continuing negative energy caused by the British presence in the region. Like “Death Valley,” “The Dogs of Pemba” (1926) represents a more progressive reimagining of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1902). The story concerns the brutish commissioner of Pemba who is literally turned into a beast by the Pembans in retaliation for his abusive treatment of the local people. The chapter concludes with an examination of how the “Egyptian Gothic” functions in Lawrence’s “The Curse of the Stillborn” (1925), a story which describes a narrow-minded British missionary who disregards Egyptian belief with detrimental consequences.
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Edmundson, M. (2018). The African Stories of Margery Lawrence. In: Women’s Colonial Gothic Writing, 1850-1930. Palgrave Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76917-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76917-2_6
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