Professor: Maureen Harkin, Vollum CC 306; ext. 7939; mharkin@reed.edu
Class meets: Mondays and Wednesdays 3.10-4.30, Physics 121.
Office Hours: Mondays 2-3, Wednesdays 10-12; and by appointement.
Description
In this class we will read a series of texts that focus on the nature of national and imperial identity in an age of exploration, conquest and colonization. Most of the works are British, along with some French, American and Caribbean texts, and range from canonical novels by writers such as Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift and Jane Austen to journals, letters, autobiographies and poetry by less well-known authors from the social periphery or margins of empire. Through these readings we will explore two kinds of questions: first, what national identity is, what it means to be an imperial power, and what the nature of the non-European “other” is in a (literary) culture fascinated by the possibilities of colonial domination and confronted with the fact of slavery. Associated topics such as the development of a culture of ethnographic and cultural tourism in this period will also be examined. In addition, in close readings of the varied forms of these texts (satire, fiction, the memoir and journal, and poetry) we will trace how various literary genres tend to shape arguments and make certain kinds of effect possible. There will also be substantial secondary reading in recent criticism and theory on the questions raised by the readings.
Assessment
1. Faithful class attendance and completion of all the readings. Participation in discussion of the readings in class is a requirement. Each student is also required to periodically formulate questions on the weekly readings for class discussion, and to give one brief (5-10 minute) class presentation that introduces one of the readings. Guidelines for the latter will be discussed in class.
2. Students will write two short papers (5-6 pages) and a longer final essay (approx. 10 pages). One short paper is a close reading of one of the primary works incorporating one or two critical sources, and the second is a critical analysis of one of the recent works of criticism/theory. The final paper will address a larger problem treated in the course via one or more texts (for example: representations of slavery; the experience and meanings of tourism in Sterne, Austen or MacCannell; the nature of modernity in Samuel Johnson’s account; etc.). A list of suggested topics will be circulated in class, though students are welcome to devise their own topic in consultation with me.
NOTE: the due dates for papers are strict deadlines. Late papers without documented medical cause may be subject to grade penalties.
Required Texts
NOTE: students are asked to use the specific editions listed here, which generally include appendices or editorial content of which we will make use in class).
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko and Other Writings, Oxford
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, Norton
Jonathan Swift, The Writings of Jonathan Swift, Norton
Montesquieu, Persian Letters, Penguin
Francoise de Graffigny, Letters from a Peruvian Woman, MLA
Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey, Oxford
Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, Penguin
James Cook, The Journals of James Cook, Penguin
Vincent Caretta (ed.) Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the
English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century U. of Kentucky Press
Matthew Lewis, Journal of A West India Proprietor Oxford
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park Broadview
Recommended Text
Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism
