AJ16072 British Empire and Imperialism: Narratives

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2020
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
Wed 12:00–13:40 G25
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
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, John Buchan,Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, 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 a 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 particular focus one one area in the essay, by the course participant themselves.
Syllabus
  • Week 1:Feb.19th:Introductory Week 2:Feb.26th:D.Defoe:Robinson Crusoe:Chapters 1-10;Lawrence James: The Rise and Fall of the British Empire:Part One:Ch.1(My New Found Land),2(Baubles for the Souls of Men:The East and West Indies),4 (Dispositions of Providence: The Colonists); Tristram Hunt:Ten Cities that Made an Empire:Introduction Week 3:March 4th:Robinson Crusoe: Chs. 11-20; J.Swift: A Modest Proposal; James: Part Two: Chs 1 (The Rule of the Main: The Making of British Seapower,1689-1748),5(The World Turned Upside Down: The American War of Independence).Hunt: Ch.1:Boston Week 4: March 11th:NO LESSON:TO BE REPLACED IN READING WEEK Week 5:March 18th: 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 6: March 25th:A. Conan Doyle: The Sign of Four; L. James: Part 2:Ch.6; The Terror of Our Arms: Hunt Ch.3. Dublin Week 7: April 1st R.Kipling:Kim;Lawrence James: Part 3: Ch 1 :Power and Greatness(Commerce,Seapower and Strategy,1815-70); Hunt Ch.4.Capetown. Week 8: April 8th: Joseph Conrad:Heart of Darkness; Lawrence James: Part 3: Chs 2(We are Going as Civilisers:Empire and Public Opinion), 3 (The Mission of Our Race:Britain and the New Imperialism, 1880-1902);Tristram Hunt: Ch.5:Calcutta Week 9:April 15th:Joseph Conrad: Nostromo(1):Lawrence James: part 3; Chs.4 (The Miracle of the World, India 1815-1905) 5 (They Little Know Our Strength: The Far East and the Pacific);Hunt:Ch.6.Hong Kong Week 10:April 22nd Joseph Conrad: Nostromo (2); James: Part 3:6,8: A Great English-Speaking Country: South Africa); 6(That Heroic Soul:The Struggle for the Nile) Hunt:Ch.7: Bombay Week 11:April 29th:John Buchan: Greenmantle OR ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ OR Erskine Childers: ‘The Riddle of the Sands’;James:Part 4:Ch.3 (Their Country's Dignity:Egypt,1919-42, 4 (The Haughty Governess: The Middle East,1919-42); Hunt: Ch.8: Melbourne Week 12:May 6th:E.M. Forster: A Passage to India (1): Chs 1-15; James: Part 4:Ch 5(A New Force and New Power:India,1919-42;Hunt:Ch.9: New Delhi Week 13: May 13th: E.M. Forster: A Passage to India(2), Chs.16 to end; L. James Part 4 Ch.8:No Good Blustering: The Limits of Imperial Power,1919-36); Part 5: Chs 2 (Friendly Relations: India and the Liquidation of Empire,1945-47),5 (The Old Red, White and Blue: Reactions to a Dying Empire) 7 (Unfinished Business:1979-98);Hunt:Ch.10:Liverpool
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
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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