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ideas. At the same time, it is also possible to interpret this skewed
portrayal as that of an independent and proud native woman, who
fights against McAndrick’s dominance and brutally defeats him by
using indigenous weapons representative of her culture and back-
ground. This Imelda is certainly not the gentle, docile, and accept-
ing primitive that her lover had initially seen in her. Despite being
presented through McAndrick’s biased perspective, Imelda’s final
actions contradict McAndrick’s notions about her nature, and invert
traditional, pre-conceived Western ideas of the native stereotype (as
being irrational, childlike, and subordinate by nature). The story’s
conclusion then further subverts imperial ideas of natives’ inherent
inferiority and need for domination, as we are shown McAndrick
noticing “with his last flicker of intelligence” that his native serv-
ant’s horror at the murderous scene nevertheless has “savage tri-
umph in it” (Jenkins 1973: 64). The servant’s terror at seeing
McAndrick murdered by Imelda is mixed with desire to rise against
the white, colonial power that he represents, and in this sense,
therefore, she supports Imelda’s rebellion against McAndrick and
Empire. Regardless of the brutality by which this is achieved,
Imelda’s murder of McAndrick ultimately works towards Ashcroft,
Griffiths, and Tiffin’s model of reinstating the marginalised in the
face of the dominant (Ashcroft et al. 1989: 175), in both feminist
and postcolonial terms. While both The Expatriates and “Imelda and
the Miserly Scot” thus offer powerful exposure of the unequal sexu-
al dynamics within patriarchal, racial and imperial power struc-
tures, the short story arguably conveys a more decisive message on
Jenkins’s sympathies with colonised peoples.
3. Conclusion: feminist postcolonialism?
The novels and stories by Robin Jenkins that are set outside his
native country convey a clear critique of the imperial enterprise. The
Expatriates and “Imelda and the Miserly Scot” are outstanding
examples of such work. These stories demonstrate in no uncertain
terms the expatriates’ Eurocentric arrogance, while also shedding
light on the sexual exploitation that often took place within the
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