At a Slight Angle to the British Empire

Cavafy’s connection to the British Empire has mainly been tackled with reference to the poet’s biographical situation and social standing or as reflected in a few of his poems that focus on explicitly imperial themes, as for example in “Waiting for the Barbarians.” This chapter investigates the deployment of aspects of Hellenistic history in British imperialist discourse, seeking to contextualize Cavafy’s poetic handling of the same historical material in a way that may enable subtler and more balanced readings of the poet’s work. Continuing from the previous chapter, which attempted to locate contemporaneous sources, contexts and correspondences for Cavafy’s historical representations of homoerotic desire, the present discussion probes into Edward Said’s largely unhindered observation that Cavafy’s “poetic and psycho-sexual consciousness operated within imperial circles; consequently, he identified with the Europeans of the East” (in Gourgouris, 1992, p. 394; my emphasis).