Threshing Wheat in Italy

Accompanying part XXI of The Moonstone in Harper’s Weekly is an illustration of the “Primitive Style of Threshing Wheat in Italy in 1868” (334) along with a brief anonymous description titled “Threshing Wheat in Italy” (335). These indicate blatantly the contempt of the Other “in order to justify the consolidation of British notions of law and order” (Radford 1188) in that the method of threshing wheat in Italy is described to be “primitive” (334). Furthermore, derogatory language is used in the description, contrasting with the previous description of “The Royal Marriage in Italy” (334) in that with great contempt the author writes that “[n]othing we could say in words would so graphically describe the benighted condition of Italy” (335). The description goes on further to give the reason for “lack of enterprise and invention, as well as the lax morality and general ignorance” was due to “the prevailing religion” (335), demonstrating the blatant contempt and “essential criminality” (Radford 1188) of the foreign Other in order for the British to bolster themselves to be superior. This contempt of the Other in terms of religion in order to suggest that they are inferior can be read in The Moonstone in which Mr. Murthwaite and Mr. Bruff dismissed the “theory of clairvoyance” that had become associated with the Indian traditions as “a development of the romantic side of the Indian character” (Collins 282), dismissing it readily as ridiculous and implausible.

Note: There are two items in this exhibit. To access the article, click on the digitization of the illustration to enter the full items of this exhibit. 

Works Cited

Collins, Wilkie. “Chapter III.” The Moonstone. Ed. John Sutherland. Oxford University Press, 2008. 199-132. Print.

Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. 23 May 1868. 334-335. Print.

Radford, Andrew. “Victorian Detective Fiction.” Literature Compass, vol. 5, no. 6, 2008, pp. 1179–1196.