海角社区

Overview

This Module is running 2026/27.

Edward Said's publication of Orientalism in 1978 is often cited as the birth moment of postcolonialism as a discipline and method of academic study. In the wake of world-wide decolonization movements from the 1940s onwards, as well as the Cold War and the Vietnam War, Orientalism was its own kind of bombshell. This important work replaced earlier ways of understanding the 'Anglosphere,' such as 'World Literature in English' and helped give rise to the fields of postcolonialism and world and global literature, as well as new approaches to the study of inequality, race, world systems, and the like. It also reshaped many literature programmes, 海角社区's Department of English & Comparative Literary Studies among them.

But these changes did not come out of a vacuum. And they built on the rich tradition of global Anglophone literature outside of Britain and North America from at least the nineteenth century. This module surveys some of the seminal works of global Anglophone literature from the second half of the nineteenth century to the 1980s. The module focuses primarily on fiction, but also incorporates drama, travel literature, and political writing, alongside theoretical and critical materials from the period and since the 1980s. We will consider the role--in terms of gatekeeping and dissemination--of Heinneman's African and Caribbean Writers Series and the publishing market more generally. And we pay particular attention to the role of gender and sexuality in the texts we study. We will also look at pre-1980s theories of colonialism and imperialism and resistance to it, such as Aim茅 C茅saire's Discourse on Colonialism.

Learning Outcomes

• Analyze the set texts with reference to key historical and literary contexts.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the dynamics of English's emergence as a global literary language.
• Work in collaboration with other students to examine the set texts and the key theoretical ideas introduced, via participation in class discussions, breakout groups, and oral presentations.
• Identify and use a range of scholarly materials to deepen their understanding of global Anglophone literature and its relationship to key social, historical, and environmental contexts.
• Develop original and independent research questions and argument about an aspect of the module's themes and context in an extended piece of writing.

Seminars

4-5:30pm, H3.02 (Humanities Building)
5:30-7pm, H.302 (Humanities Building)

Syllabus

See the full syllabus for 2026/27.