Goblinization: a Reading of the Colonial Subject and Degeneration in The Princess and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1883) by George MacDonald (1824-1905)

Abstract

George MacDonald‟s two longer fairy tales, Princess and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1883) reflect key preoccupations of nineteenth century English society such as the Darwinian discussion, commercialism, wealth creation and materialism. My aim in this paper is to read The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie as a reflection of the nineteenth century, essentially "Victorian,‟ preoccupation with the colonized as "other‟. I approach this preoccupation through the arguments of similarity and difference as justification for imperial expansion