Abstract
Tipu’s Tiger is a unique semi-automaton of great symbolic value exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It depicts a near life-size Bengal tiger mauling a prostrate English soldier. Inside the tiger’s body is an organ, which can be turned by an outside shaft to produce sounds in imitation of the soldier’s moans and the tiger’s growls. This sophisticated object was among the war loot taken in 1799 from the palace of Tipu Sultan, the last king of Mysore in Southern India, by the British East India Company’s soldiers. Tipu’s Tiger is estimated to have been made in India in the 1790s. It combines European (most likely French) technology with Indian craftmanship. Tipu’s Tiger’s emblematic symbolism and colonial contexts are the basis for American writer Tania James’ novel Loot (2023), which intriguingly maps out the sculpture’s creation, cultural significance, and eventual oceanic journey from India to England. In this presentation, I will engage the perspective of the sociology of literature to discuss Tipu’s Tiger as a colonial text, that is, as an artifact within both Indian and British narratives of empire and conquest in conjunction with James’ novel. The sociology of literature is an interdisciplinary approach that situates literary texts within historical, philosophical, and cultural interpretative frames. To this day, museum exhibits of colonial loot are used discursively to tell tales of empire and power. James’ novel politicizes this practice while also making a compelling connection between material culture and literature.
Presenters
Kirsten MøllegaardProfessor, English, University of Hawai'i at Hilo, Hawaii, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Tipu’s Tiger, Tania James, Empire, Colonialism, Sociology of Literature
