230208 Imagining India in British Literature and Film (S) (SoSe 2016)

After the loss of the thirteen North American colonies in the American War of Independence, the British Empire turned its colonial attention towards Asia. In the following century, India emerged as Britain’s most important colonial possession and remained under British control until 1947. As “the brightest jewel in Her Majesty's Crown“ (Disraeli), the subcontinent was not only an object of intense economic, political, and military interest during this time, but the colonial experience also captured the imagination of many British writers and artists and still continues to do so.
This course will engage with the ways India under British rule has been imagined in British literature and film. Beginning with texts from the late 19th century, the course will trace different ways of trying to represent British rule; it will analyze different strategies of legitimizing, challenging, and coming to terms with the project and the memory of Empire from a postcolonial perspective.

Requirements for participation, required level

Verpflichtende Vorbesprechung am 11.4.2016 um 13.00h in C4-217