English 337, British
Colonial Fiction
Richard Ruppel
Reading and Conference - Fall, 2011
Meetings:
Every other Wednesday at 10am: October 5, 19, November 2, 16, 30, December 14
Texts:
- Daniel
Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- Rudyard
Kipling, Plain Tales from the Hills - [Read “Lispeth,”
“Miss Youghal's Sais,” “Yoked
with an Unbeliever,” “His Chance in
Life,” “Kidnapped,” “In the House of Suddhoo,” “Beyond
the Pale,”“Tods' Amendment,” “The Bronckhorst Divorce-Case,” “The Gate of the
Hundred Sorrows,” “The Story of Muhammad Din,” & “To Be
Filed for Reference.” And read "The Man Who Would Be
King," "The Strange Ride of Morrowbie
Jukes," and "The Bridge Builders." Links to these
stories are below.]
- Joseph
Conrad, The Portable Conrad
- Joseph
Conrad, Lord Jim
- E.
M. Forster, A Passage to India
- Chinua
Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Additional Stories:
- Robert
Louis Stevenson, "The Beach of Falesa."
- Kipling:
"The
Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes,"
"The
Bridge Builders," "The Man Who
Would Be King."
- Somerset
Maugham, "Rain."
British Colonial Fiction: Writing the
Empire
The
emphasis of this course will be on British novels and stories set in what we
now call “developing” or “third-world” countries. (I put these words in
quotations because those are terms that Europeans and North Americans often use
to categorize these nations, not terms that these nations would necessarily use
themselves.) While we explore the elements of fiction we will also
discover the ways in which the West has defined itself in its relationship with
Africa and the East. We will see how British authors presented
non-Europeans, and we will discuss how this has affected our own attitudes
toward non-western peoples and cultures. At the end of the semester we
will read a post-colonial novel, and we will see how one author from a
so-called “third world” country presents his own culture and its relationship
with a colonial power.
As we
analyze how British authors represented non-white people, we will be studying
how colonial stereotypes are created, maintained, and modified. But
our analysis does not apply only to colonial discourse. An understanding
of this process can be applied in other contexts. This semester we
will study some of the ways people in power represent people with less power,
how they represent the people they are trying to control. This
semester, these “others” will be the “natives” of India, Malaysia, South
America, or Africa. But in other contexts, these may be any people
from another culture, another race, or another gender. They may be the
poor, the young, or the disabled.
In
short, this semester we will study how literary representation can be a tool of
power.
Written Requirements and Grades:
- Notebook
Responses: 70% These are due
electronically on the Monday
before each of our meetings.
- Final
10 page Researched Essay: 30%
Bi-Weekly Schedule
September
29 - Introduction to course, with readings in colonial discourse theory.
October 5 - Crusoe & Kipling stories. Discussion of Colonial
Literature.
October 19 - Kipling and Stevenson.
November 2 - Conrad's "Lagoon," "Outpost
of Progress," and "Heart of Darkness."
November 16 - Conrad's Lord Jim.
November 30 - Stevenson's "Rain." Forster's Passage to India.
December 14 - Achebe's Things Fall Apart and
discussion of research paper, due December 19.