SOURCE: Grogan, Claire. “Crossing Genre, Gender and Race in Elizabeth Hamilton's Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah.” Studies in the Novel 34, no. 1 (spring 2002): 21-42.

In the following essay, Grogan addresses the difficulty of classifying the genre of Hamilton's Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah, arguing that the work is part Oriental satire, part Oriental tale, but primarily an Oriental study. Ultimately, the critic proposes that Hamilton's approach can best be defined as female Orientalism.

This study was prompted by an incident while researching the politics of British women's writing in the late eighteenth century several years ago. I dutifully arrived at the Birmingham Public library to examine a first edition of Elizabeth Hamilton's Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah (1796), referenced in the National Union Catalogue back in Canada only to have the librarians deny all knowledge of the work. Faced with failure...