FF:AJ16072 British Empire and Imperialism - Course Information

AJ16072 British Empire and Imperialism: Narratives

Extent and Intensity

0/2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 2 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).

Teacher(s)

Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D. (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

doc. PhDr. Jana Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts

Timetable

Tue 12:00–13:40 G32

Prerequisites (in Czech)

AJ01002 Practical English II

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 12 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

This semester's course will focus on aspects of the history of the British Empire from its beginnings to its slow demise in the twentieth century, but also its residue and implications. At the same time, the initial, literary focus, will be on a series of fictions produced in the first part of the twentieth century and set in parts of the British Empire, a focus including consideration of novels by Daniel Defoe, J.Rider Haggard, A. Conan Doyle,Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, John Buchan, E.M. Forster, George Orwell, and the television series 'The Jewel in the Crown' (based on Paul Scott's 'The Raj Quartet'. By the end of the course students will have read and discussed these elements and have produced an essay analysing aspects of factual and fictional (or both) treatments of the relevant areas. Students will emerge from the course having indicated an ability to analyse and combine historical and fictional perspectives on the British Empire and imperialism having produced an essay concerned with an aspect of either or both of these perspectives.

Learning outcomes

Partcipants having completed the course will have been introduced to the basic history of the British Empire, though with particular reference to India as primary case example, and the kind of issues raised by consideration of its contents. Such issues will have been further negotiated and dramatised by the fictional works covered, and in terms of oral discussion of each instance and, with aparticular focus on one area in the essay, by the course participant themselves.

Syllabus

• Week 1:Feb.19th:Introductory Week 2:Feb.26th:Robinson Crusoe:Chapters 1-10; Lawrence James: The Rise and Fall of the British Empire:Part One:Ch.1,2,4; Tristram Hunt:Introduction Week 3:March 5th:Robinson Crusoe: Chs. 11-20; James: Part Two: Chs 1,5.Hunt: Ch.1:Boston Week 4:March 12th: H. Rider Haggard: King Solomon's Mines; Hunt: Ch.2.Bridgetown; (Read One or More of:) N.Canny: The Origins of Empire; Rodger: Power and Empire; M.Duffy: World–Wide War and British Expansion Week 5: March 19th:A. Conan Doyle: The Sign of Four; L. James: Part 2:Ch.6; The Terror of Our Arms: Hunt Ch.3. Dublin; (Optional:P. O'Brien: Inseparable Connections; J. Horn: British Diaspora: M.Duffy: World-Wide War and British Expansion.) Week 6: March 26th: R.Kipling:Kim;Lawrence James: Part 3: Ch 1 :Power and Greatness; Hunt Ch.4.Capetown (Optional:D. Richardson: The British Empire and Atlantic Slavery;P. Marshall:The British in Asia). Week 7:April 2nd: John Buchan: Greenamantle; Lawrence James: Part 3: Chs 2,3 We are Going as Civilisers, The Mission of Our Race;Tristram Hunt Ch.5:Calcutta ; (Optional:A. Porter: Britain and Empire in the Nineteenth Century; R.Moore: Imperial India 1858-1914) Week 8: April 9th: John Buchan: Greenmantle(2);Lawrence James: part 3; Chs.4,5: The Miracle of the World; They Little Know Our Strength; Hunt:Ch.6.Hong Kong;(Optional:'Friendly Relations: India and the Liquidation of Empire'1945-7 (pp.542-558); The World As it Is: Middle Eastern Misadventures: 1945-56) (pp.559-572);Roger Louis: Introduction) Week 9:April 16th:READING WEEK: NO CLASS Week 10:April 23rd:Joseph Conrad:Heart of Darkness; James: Part 3:6,8: A Great English-Speaking Country; That Heroic Soul; Ch.7: Bombay (Optional:Cell: Colonial Rule) Week 11:April 30th:E.M. Forster: A Passage to India Chs. 1-15; James:Part 4:Ch.3: Their Country's Dignity; Hunt: Ch.8: Melbourne(Optional:Holland:British Empire and the Great War;R.Hyam: British Empire in the Edwardian Era) Week 12:May 7th:E.M. Forster: A Passage to India: Chs 16-27: James: Part 4:Ch 5:A New Force and New Power;Hunt: Ch.9: New Delhi;(Optional:G. Balfour-Paul:Britain's Informal Empire in the Middle-East;F. Robinson: The British Empire and the Muslim World; A. Knight: Latin America) Week 13: May 14th: George Orwell: Burmese Days; L. James Part 4 Ch.8:No Good Blustering; Part 5: Chs 2,5,7: Friendly Relations,The Old Red, White and Blue; Unfinished Business;Hunt:Ch.10:Liverpool (Optional:) Ch.8 K. Jeffery: The Second World War; W.M. Roger Louis: The Dissolution of the British Empire; R. O'Hanlon: Gender in the British Empire

Literature

required literature
• James, Lawrence The Rise and Fall of the British Empire London Abacus (1998)
• ORWELL, George. Burmese days. London: Penguin Books, 2002, 299 s. ISBN 0141187182. info
• CONRAD, Joseph. Nostromo : a tale of the seaboard. Edited by Martin Seymour-Smith. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1990, 474 s. ISBN 014018371X. info
• KIPLING, Rudyard. Kim. Edited by Alan Sandison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, xxxviii, 3. ISBN 0192816519. info
• GREENE, Graham. The heart of the matter. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1962, 263 s. info
• FORSTER, E. M. A passage to India. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1961, 316 s. ISBN 0140000488. info

recommended literature
• The Oxford History of the British Empire Vols. I-IV (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998-99))

not specified
• Hunt, Tristram. Ten Cities That Made an Empire. London: Abacus, 1998
• DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The sign of four. Edited by Anne Collins. Oxford: Macmillan, 2005, 71 s. ISBN 140507678X. info
• DEFOE, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1994, 298 s. ISBN 014062015X. info
• CONRAD, Joseph. Heart of darkness. Edited by Paul O'Prey. London: Penguin Books, 1983, 120 s. ISBN 0-14-018090-7. info
• CONRAD, Joseph. Lord Jim. Edited by Cedric Thomas Watts - Robert Hampson. First published in Penguin B. London: Penguin Books, 1949, 377 stran. ISBN 0140180923. info
• HAGGARD, H. Rider. King Solomon's mines. Copyright edition. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1886, 288 stran. info

Teaching methods

The course will be taught by a combination of close and background reading and small-group and class discussion. By the end of the course the students will have written an essay analysing aspects of the British Empire and imperalism from historical or functional perspectives or a combination of the two.

Assessment methods

Assessment will be by attendance and class contribution (40%) and a 6-8 page essay (60%). One copy of the essay should be submitted to my address in the IS system and one to the IS essay vault.

Language of instruction

English

Further Comments

Study Materials

• Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2019, recent)
  
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