This subject considers the ways in which power, or Empire, has been reflected, constructed and challenged within western literature. To consider Empire as Centre is also to consider what lies at the "Margins," in geographical, political, sexual, or religious terms. The subject will explore these ideas by consideration of selected literary examples: across genres - short stories, novels, drama and poetry; across time periods, from the 1600s to the present; as well across place, from England to Africa and to Australia. It will explicitly evoke post-colonialism ideas to interpret literature's representations of empire, margins and the possibilities of difference.
Objectives
Students successfully completing this subject should have developed:
a sense of how literary texts relate to the periods in which they are written, particularly in relation to the concepts of empire, margins and difference
a recognition of the elements of literary genres fiction, drama and poetry
a familiarity with the appropriate theoretical and critical concepts employed in the discussion of literary texts, in particular post-colonial ideas about power, otherness and binary oppositions
greater confidence in the spoken skills of discussion and debate within a tutorial context.
