The Nineteenth-Century Novel and the British Empire

The Nineteenth-Century Novel and the British Empire is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies course taught by Lise Sanders.

Course Description
This course uses the British empire as a case study in order to examine the cultural politics of imperialism and colonization. Focusing on British India but with excursions into other colonial contexts, readings will explore the connections between race, gender, sexuality and empire. In reading nineteenth-century literary and historical texts in conjunction with postcolonial criticism and contemporary fiction, we will ask the following questions: How does the imperialist project affect or determine constructions of sexuality and gender? How are ethnicity, nationality, and racial difference deployed in the service of empire? How is the body figured under imperialism? We will also study the relationship between empire and nationalism, examining writings that represent and/or theorize domination and resistance in the colonial encounter. The goal of this course is to enable students to explore the relationship between literature and history in narratives of empire, and to develop a set of theoretical lenses by which to examine these concerns.