230367 Colonial India and the Rebellion of 1857 in the British Imagination (BS) (SoSe 2018)

The Uprising of 1857 constitutes a key event in British colonial history. Politically it not only brought about the end of the East India Company and caused the British Empire to take direct control over the Indian subcontinent, but the historical revolt has since frequently served as a collective symbol for Indian national identity and unity. Conceived of in a variety of different ways, ranging from 'treacherous mutiny' to 'India's First War of Independence', the events and their repercussions on British and Indian history continue to be discussed controversially; they have triggered the imagination of countless artists, writers and filmmakers during the 19th and 20th century.
This class is going to provide an introduction the political and cultural background of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. On this basis, it will attempt to explore different historical, (auto)biographical, and literary texts addressing those events. Drawing on Postcolonial Theory the course will investigate how the uprising and its aftermath have been imagined and fictionalized by its contemporaries as well as later generations.

Bibliography

Since the program of the block seminar will be tightly packed, most of the reading must be completed prior to the first session. The complete list of the texts that have to be read during the term break will be available by the end of the summer semester (The list will, however, definitely include J.G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur (1973), so you can already obtain a copy of this novel).
If you have any questions concerning the block seminar, please feel free to contact me at any time.