Week 1. August 29, August 31. Introduction; Oroonoko
| A. | Montagu, Letter to Lady Mar, hand-out Steele and Seymour, two versions of “Inkle and Yarico,” hand-outs. |
| B. | Aphra Behn, Oroonoko |
Week 2. September 7. Theories of Race, Nation and Empire
(NB: No class Sept 5 – Labor Day)
| B. | David Hume, “Of National Characters,” hand-out. Said, Culture and Imperialism, xi-xxviii, 3-19, 51-61. Reserve Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 1-46. Reserve |
Week 3. September 12, 14 Robinson Crusoe: Defoe’s Mythic Settler.
| A. | Defoe, Robinson Crusoe |
| B. | Defoe, Robinson Crusoe Said, Culture and Imperialism, 62-80. Reserve. |
Week 4. September 19, 21. Swift: Imaginary Travels
| A. | Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Parts I and II. |
| B. | Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Parts III and IV. |
* First Short Paper due in Class Wednesday September 28.*
Week 5. September 26, 28. Montesquieu and Orientalism
| A. | Montesquieu, Persian Letters selections |
| B. | Montesquieu, Persian Letters; cont’d; Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, Bks 14-17 (231-284), Reserve. |
Week 6. October 3, 5. Montagu and Graffigny
| A. | Montagu, Selections from Selected Letters , hand-out. Aravamudan, excerpt from Tropicopolitans (“Lady Mary in the Hammam”), hand-out. Pointon, “Going Turkish in 18th-Century London: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Portraits”, hand-out. |
| B. | Graffigny, Letters from a Peruvian Woman |
Week 7. October 10, 12. Sentimentalism and the Grand Tour; Sentimentalism and Slavery
| A. | Sterne, A Sentimental Journey |
| B. | Sterne, A Sentimental Journey Sterne’s Correspondence with Ignatius Sancho from Unchained Voices Chloe Chard, Pleasure and Guilt on the Grand Tour, 1-39, Reserve. |
FALL BREAK October 15-23
Week 8. October 24, 26. Exploration Narratives: Cook
| A. | Cook, Voyages of Captain James Cook |
| B. | Cook, Voyages of Captain James Cook Mary Louise Pratt, Introduction and Chapter 3 from Imperial Eyes. Reserve. |
Week 9. October 31, November 2. Johnson and Boswell in Scotland: Modernity and the Primitive
| A. | Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland |
| B. | Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, excerpts. Dean MacCannell, The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class, excerpt, hand-out. |
* Second Short Paper due in Class Wednesday November 2. *
Week 10 November 7, 9. Equiano and the Slave Narrative
| A. | Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of … Olaudah Equiano (in Unchained Voices) |
| B. | Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano continued. Gayatri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Reserve. |
Week 11. November 14, 16. The Experience of Slavery Represented: Prose and Verse
| A. | Selections from Unchained Voices (Cuguano, Wheatley, Banneker) |
| B. | Selections from Unchained Voices, continued. Selections from Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, hand-out. C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 6-26, 58-61, 67-93, hand-out. |
Week 12. November 21, 23. The Journal of a Slave-Owner
| A. | Matthew Lewis, Journal of A West-India Proprietor |
| B. | Matthew Lewis, Journal of A West-India Proprietor Critical Reading: Homi Bhabha, “Colonial Mimicry,” hand-out. |
Week 13. November 28, 30. Austen
| A. | Austen, Mansfield Park |
| B. | Austen, Mansfield Park Said, Culture and Imperialism 80-97. Reserve. |
Week 14. Dec 5, 7. Slavery and Romanticism; Conclusion.
| A. | Amazing Grace: Poems about Slavery 1660-1810, Blake, Cowper, Southey and Wordsworth selections. Anna Laetitia Barbauld, “Eighteen Hundred and Eleven,” hand-out. Wylie Sypher: Guinea’s Captive Kings: British Anti-Slavery Literature of the XVIIIth Century, 11-100, Reserve. |
| B. | Screening of Documentary, Cannibal Tours; discussion and review. |
* Final paper due (in my Eliot mailbox) Tuesday Dec 13th, noon.
