Literature, Immigration, and Diaspora in Fin-De-Siècle England: A Cultural History of the 1905 Aliens Act

Description

The 1905 Aliens Act was the first modern law to restrict immigration to British shores. In this book, David Glover asks how it was possible for Britain, a nation that had prided itself on offering asylum to refugees, to pass such legislation. Tracing the ways that the legal notion of the alien became a national-racist epithet indistinguishable from the figure of the Jew, Glover argues that the literary and popular entertainments of fin de si�cle Britain perpetuated a culture of xenophobia. Reconstructing the complex socio-political field known as the alien question, Glover examines the work of George Eliot, Israel Zangwill, Rudyard Kipling, and Joseph Conrad, together with forgotten writers like Margaret Harkness, Edgar Wallace, and James Blyth. By linking them to the beliefs and ideologies that circulated via newspapers, periodicals, political meetings, Royal Commissions, patriotic melodramas, and social surveys, Glover sheds new light on dilemmas about nationality, borders, and citizenship that remain vital today. Cover LITERATURE, IMMIGRATION, AND DIASPORA IN FIN-DE-SIÈCLE ENGLAND Title Copyright Dedication Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction CHAPTER 1 Messianic neutrality: George Eliot and the politics of national identity MESSIANIC TIMES FREEDOM AND THE NEUTRAL STATE DIASPORIC READINGS NATIONALITY AND THE MOVEMENT OF SUBJECTS CHAPTER 2 Palaces and sweatshops: East End fictions and East End politics ‘AN UTTERLY UNKNOWN TOWN’ THE PALACE OF DELIGHT VERSUS THE PEOPLE’S PALACE ‘ISRAEL IN EGYPT’ ‘THE SCUM OF LONDON’ THE ALIEN SWEATER CHAPTER 3 Counterpublics of anti-Semitism ANTI-SEMITISM’S UNRULY INFANCY THEATRES OF PREJUDICE ANTI-SEMITISM AND THE RADICAL RIGHT ‘THE ANTI-ALIEN CRUSADE’ CHAPTER 4 Writing the 1905 Aliens Act ‘AN INQUIRY ON THE SPOT’ AN ALIEN CASTAWAY TROUBLE IN STEERAGE EXILES AND ENEMIES: TWO LEGAL FICTIONS CHAPTER 5 Restriction and its discontents ‘JEWGANDA’ LIBERAL MEASURES ANARCHISM’S FATAL RETURN Afterword Notes INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 MESSIANIC NEUTRALITY: GEORGE ELIOT AND THE POLITICS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY CHAPTER 2 PALACES AND SWEATSHOPS: EAST END FICTIONS AND EAST END POLITICS CHAPTER 3 COUNTERPUBLICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM CHAPTER 4 WRITING THE 1905 ALIENS ACT CHAPTER 5 RESTRICTION AND ITS DISCONTENTS AFTERWORD Index