ENGL 215-01, The Imperial Idea in British Literature: Promoters, Doubter, Enemies and Aftermath, Fall 2010

Abstract

Course description: Why study empire through literature? “Empire” is a complex term, not least as it applies to that other complex entity, “Britain” (as opposed to the simpler idea of “England”, for instance). This course will focus on literary texts composed during the formation of both Britain and what came to be the British empire(s). We will examine the representation and ideas of empire; different attitudes to English dominance in the British Isles; different responses to the growth of English and British commercial dominance and territorial expansion; and both positive and negative evaluations of the imperial project. The course will end by considering some of the literature of the dissolution of Britain’s empire. An integral part of this course will be participation in a series of events – lectures, presentations, movies, discussions. Students enroll also in History 105: The British Empire and Its Enemies. Two famous statements to consider by very different literary theorists: “To the carrying out of the job [of cultural criticism] literature has a unique relevance . . . because literature is the human activity that takes the fullest and most precise account of variousness, possibility, complexity and difficulty”. Lionel Trilling, The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society (New York 1950), p. xv. “Knowledge is coarse, life is subtle, and literature matters to us because it corrects this distance”. Roland Barthes, Leçon [Inaugural Lecture at the Collège de France], Paris 1978.