History and Literature Sophomore Seminar:
British Colonialism and Imperialism
Harvard University, H&L 97
Spring 2003
Meegan Kennedy
John Mackey
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[The syllabus for Spring 2004 will be similar but not identical to this. One major change will be the addition of more nineteenth-century material, since we removed our fall-semester unit on nineteenth-century London in order to make room for the Common Curriculum].
Schedule : P = Primary Source S = Secondary Source W = Writing Assignment CC = Common Curriculum Readings
* = Available in H&L Office for photocopying
P: Thos. Harriot, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1590 edition).
P: William Shakespeare, The Tempest , first performance (1611).
P: Robert Browning, "Caliban Upon Setebos" (online).
S: Meredith Ann Skura, "Discourse and the Individual: The Case of Colonialism in The Tempest," Shakespeare Quarterly , vol. 40 no.1, pp. 42-69.
S: (Optional): Abrams, "New Historicism."
W: Choose one of the following:
1. Write up a "report" on Caliban as Harriot might have
2. Write a monologue-type response to Harriot's visit, spoken by one of his observed subjects (be specific)
3. How might the play change if Caliban had voiced his observations "upon Setebos" to Prospero? (be specific: when and where would he do so? and then what would have to change?)
P: Aphra Behn, Oronooko: Or, the Royal Slave, A True History (1688) and Steele/Addison, "On Inkle and Yarico" and "On a Slave Love-Triangle" (in Bedford edn).
S: Edward Said, Orientalism [excerpts] (1979).
S: David Cannadine, Ornamentalism [excerpts] (2000).
S: "West Africa and the Triangle Trade" (in Bedford edn).
W: Three Threads and a Thesis (3T&T) (see handout).
Feb. 18: BONDAGE, FREEDOM, & COMMERCE IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD
P: Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789).
P: Wm. Blake, "The Little Black Boy" (1789)
P: Jamaica Kincaid, In a Small Place
S Bill Overton, "Countering Crusoe: Two Colonial Narratives," Critical Survey 4, no. 3 (1992), pp. 302-10.
W: Please look through Sir Hans Sloane's 1707 text A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica, with the natural history of the herbs and trees, four-footed beasts, fishes, birds, insects, reptiles, &c. of the last of those islands; to which is prefix'd an introduction, wherein is an account of the inhabitants, air, waters, diseases, trade, &c. of that place, with some relations concerning the neighbouring continent, and islands of America. Illustrated with figures of the things described, which have not been heretofore engraved; in large copper-plates as big as the life (in library only). Choose some aspect of it to discuss with either Equiano or Kincaid.
P: Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan), The Missionary (1811).
P: Thomas Macauley, "Minute on Indian Education" (1835)
P: Selection from All the World , a Salvation Army Publication (1893)
S: Andrew Porter, "Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire," in the Oxford History of the British Empire , vol. III (1999).
W: Hand in a 2-3 paragraph statement of topic/argument, an outline, and a bibliography for your sophomore essay.
P/S: Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land (1994).
S: Tim Barringer, "The South Kensington Museum and the Colonial Project," in Colonialism and the Object (1998).
W: No response paper; keep working on Soph. Essay draft.
N.B.: Friday, March 7: H&L Seminar with Ghosh, 2:00.
Friday, March 7: Two copies of Sophomore Essay draft due
March 11: VIOLENCE OF VARIOUS KINDS
P: Philip Meadows Taylor, Confessions of a Thug (1839) (excerpted).
P: W.H. Sleeman, excerpts from Rambles and Recollections of an Indian and "Report on Budhuk alias Bagree decoits, and other gang robbers by hereditary profession, and on the measures adopted by the government of India, for their suppression."
P: John Zephaniah Holwell, A Genuine Narrative of the Deplorable Deaths of the English Gentlemen and others who were suffocated in The Black Hole (1758).
S: C.A. Bayly, "The British and Indigenous Peoples, 1760-1860," in Daunton and Halpern, eds., Empire and Others (1999).
W: Sophomore Essay workshop; we discuss your essay drafts.
P: H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines .
P: David Livingstone, "The Meeting with Stanley" (1874) in Empire Writing , pp. 38-41.
P: Henry Morton Stanley, "The Meeting with Livingstone" (1886) in Empire Writing , pp. 42-50.
P: Angela Brazil, excerpt from The School at the Turrets (1935).
W: No response - Sophomore Essay week.
March 25: No Meeting - Spring Break
P: Rudyard Kipling, short stories from The Portable Kipling (Howe, ed.), in the following chronological order: "The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes" (1885), "Lispeth" (1886), "The Man Who Would be King" (1888).
P: Kipling poems: "The White Man's Burden" (1899), "For All We Have and Are" (1914).
P: George Orwell, "A Hanging" (1931).
P: John Greenleaf Whittier, "The Pipes at Lucknow," Alfred Tennyson, "To the Queen" (1873), and "The Defence of Lucknow" (1880)
S: R.J. Moore, "India and the British Empire," in C.C. Eldridge, ed., British Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (1984).
W: Write a response paper in the form of a dialogue between one of Kipling's characters and one of Haggard's. The subject matter is your choice.
P: Jos. Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899).
P: Mary Kingsley, "Fetish," in Travels in West Africa (1897), and Introduction by Elizabeth Claridge.
S: In Norton Critical Edition of Heart of Darkness : "Backgrounds and Sources," Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" and Frances B. Singh, "The Colonialistic Bias of Heart of Darkness ."
W: Write a response paper that engages the criticism of HOD in Achebe's article; specifically, argue for or against Achebe's view.
P: E.M. Forster, A Passage to India (1924).
P: Sarojini Naidu, "To India," in Empire Writing , p. 313.
P: Sri Aurobindo, "The Object of Passive Resistence," (1907), in Empire Writing , pp. 320-325.
S: Denis Judd, "The Amritsar Massacre," from Empire ; G.K. Das, excerpt from " A Passage to India : A Socio-Historical Study."
W: Write a response paper in which you write the chapter that Forster left out - an explanation of exactly what happened in the caves.
April 22: THE BEGINNING OF THE END: PARITION AND MIGRATION
P: Bapsi Sidhwa, Cracking India (1991).
P: W.H. Auden, "Partition" (1948).
P: Salman Rushdie, excerpt from Midnight's Children (1980).
S/P: Salman Rushdie, "The New Empire Within Britain," in Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981-1991 .
W: Pick a passage (one to two paragraphs) from Cracking India and write a response paper based on an interdisciplinary close reading of the text. Indicate the page number(s) of your passage at the top of the paper.
Friday, May 9: Two copies of final essay due in H&L office, 4:00