This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with melodrama's role in generating a sense of national consciousness and imperial destiny for the British. It explores the confrontation of the British stereotype of the self with one of the oldest characterisations of the Other on the English stage, the Irish stereotype. The book also explores various ways in which representations of the colonised peoples further afield, especially in India and the East, worked to naturalise and subordinate exotic otherness for British consumption. It covers several aspects of imperialist discourse and examines a range of theatrical conventions. The book offers suggestive instances of how the history of cultural forms may illuminate the processes of cultural hegemony.