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The Photograph of the Prince

Gurnah, Abdulrazak S (2012) The Photograph of the Prince. In: Morris, Mary and Robson, Di, eds. Road Stories. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-9549848-4-7. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:40594)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.

Abstract

In ROAD STORIES nine authors turn their attention to Exhibition Road, drawing inspiration from its famous institutions, collections, colleges and parks, as well as the lives of its residents. These specially commissioned pieces celebrate the diversity and richness of Exhibition Road in prose that is by turns lyrical and comical, contemplative and provocative. The result is a truly memorable and surprising collection by some of our most exciting and acclaimed writers: Ali Smith, Deborah Levy, Kamila Shamsie, Russell Hoban, Clare Wigfall, Eleanor Thom, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Hanan Al-Shaykh and Iain Sinclair

Item Type: Book section
Additional information: In 2011 the Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art mounted an exhibition of early photographic portraits of native people of Queensland. The images were striking and in some cases tragic, because they spoke so dramatically of the powerlessness of their subjects, defeated colonials unable to resist this further capture. In 1911, the Sultan of Zanzibar, Ali bin Humud, attended the coronation of George V in London, and while he was there he abdicated. This was the official story, although other stories circulated of a dethronement. There are many striking photographs of the young sultan, who was only 27 when he abdicated. The story combines the two ideas in an imaginary exhibition at the V & A. Ali bin Humud was sent to Harrow when he was 15, and spent 3 years there. Research at Harrow was combined with reading Ethel Younghusband’s 1910 memoir, which contained an informative section on the period her husband was stationed in Zanzibar during Ali bin Humud’s reign. Further research unearthed stories and photographs of the officers and officials Younghusband describes, and this contributed to the portrait of the colonial officials in the story. Among other things, the story debates the ethics of displaying colonial specimens in metropolitan museums. Ali bin Humud’s family, to whom such a display would seem invasive, have an online website which is fiercely protective of his and their privacy. The prince in the story is from Mysore, both to fictionalise him and to generalise the issue of exhibition.;
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PE English philology and language
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Depositing User: Stewart Brownrigg
Date Deposited: 07 Mar 2014 00:05 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:15 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/40594 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Gurnah, Abdulrazak S.

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