MASCULINITY, HEROISM, AND THE EMPIRE: ROBERT BROWNING'S “CLIVE” AND OTHER VICTORIAN RE-CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE STORY OF ROBERT CLIVE

The core of this paperis a reading of Robert Browning's “Clive” (1880); it attempts to account for the formalist demands of this generically complex and relentlessly ironic poetic text, while at the same time it construes the accomplishment of Browning's poetic language and form as intricate cultural critique. However, in order to better understand Browning's poem an additional discussion of its intertexts is required, the most important being Thomas Babington Macaulay's essay “On Clive” (1840).