EN 341 Fictions of Empire (Fall: 3)
In its day, the British Empire outdid Rome's power and grandeur. It reveled
in ceremony and invented traditions and sustained itself with notions of
the civilizing mission and illusions of permanence. The literary arts responded
to these "fictions" in various ways and were an important accessory to imperialism.
This course will take up the representative literature and select policy
documents of the Empire to discover the "stories" that the English told
themselves in order to justify their conquest and subjugation of others.
Works will include poems, adventure tales, short stories and novels.
Kalpana Seshadri
Last Updated: 08-FEB-12