"We weren’t taught Shakespeare or Milton in order to understand our own situation—they were taught as the jewels in Queen Victoria’s crown. The point of the colonial enterprise was that it had all these people to control. Our education was about imprinting on us the greatness of England, the idea that the people who could produce these works were of a superior kind of people...I came to understand that I should separate Shakespeare and all of the rest from Disraeli and Horatio Nelson—that the British Empire is one thing and literature another. I’ll take everything except Kipling. Wordsworth would have been very upset to know that his wonderful poems were being used as a weapon of empire."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Jamaica Kincaid, Interview with The Paris Review, no. 239 (Spring 2022)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/British_Empire
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
British Empire
50 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by British Empire →
Related Quotes
"The only serious enemy to the Empire, within or without, is that very Democracy which depends on the Empire for its p…"
"If we are to receive self-government, we shall have to take it. We shall never be granted self-government. Look at th…"
"I venture to claim two qualifications for the great office which I hold, which to my mind, without making invidious d…"
"I believe in a British Empire, in an Empire which, though it should be its first duty to cultivate friendship with al…"
"Now I know why the sun never sets on the British Empire. God wouldn’t trust an Englishman in the dark!"
"The British people realise that they are fighting for the hegemony of the Empire. If necessary we shall continue the …"
"This man in his own country prayed we know not to what powers. We pray them to reward him for his bravery in ours."
"O ye by wandering tempest sown ’Neath every alien star, Forget not whence the breath was blown That wafted you afar! …"
"God of our fathers, known of old— Lord of our far-flung battle-line— Beneath whose awful Hand we hold Dominion over p…"
"[W]e believe in the British Empire because it stands for liberty; because it has given us all that we have; because i…"