SOURCE: "Imperial Gothic: Atavism and the Occult in the British Adventure Novel, 1880-1914," in Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperalism, 1830-1914, Cornell, 1988, pp. 227-53.

In the book-length study excerpted below, Brantlinger examines the genre he identifies as "imperial gothic," which uses spiritualism to emphasize the themes of regression, invasion, and the lack of British heroism. In this excerpt, the critic argues that the genre is symptomatic of the gradual disintegration of British imperialism towards the end of the nineteenth century.

In "The Little Brass God," a 1905 story by Bithia Croker, a statue of "Kali, Goddess of Destruction," brings misfortune to its unwitting Anglo-Indian possessors. First their pets kill each other or are killed in accidents; next the servants get sick or fall downstairs; then the family's lives are jeopardized. Finally the statue is stolen and dropped down a well, thus ending the curse.¹ This featherweight tale typifies...