Overview

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, Warwick'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 Aimé Césaire'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.

Assessment

Intermediate Year students:

• 1 x 1,000 creative response essay (10%) (Term 1)
• 1 x 3,000-word essay (40%) (Term 1)
• 1 x Group presentation and 1,000-word reflective write-up (10%) (Term 2)
• 1 x Short essay exam (online) (40%) (Term 3)

Final Year students:

• 1 x 1,000-word creative response essay (10%) (Term 1)
• 1 x 3,500-word essay (40%) (Term 1)
• 1 x Group presentation and 1,000-word reflective write-up (10%) (Term 2)
• 1 x Short essay exam (online) (40%) (Term 3)

Syllabus

Provisional syllabus for 2025-26

Term 1: The Long Nineteenth Century

Week 1: Introduction 

Week 2: Setting the Theoretical Frame:

Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism and short readings by other theorists.

Week 3:

Mary Seacole, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands

Week 4: The Emergence of Anglophone writing in India: Speculative Fiction

Begum Rokeya Hossein, "Sultana's Dream" plus stories drawn from Mary Ellis Gibson's Science Fiction in Colonial India, 1835-1905.

Week 5: The Early Anglophone Novel in India:

Bankimchandra, Rajmohan's Wife 

Week 6: Reading Week 

Week 7: Woman's Writing and India:

Cornelia Sorabji, 'Behind the Purdah'; Pandita Ramabai, 'The Cry of Indian Women',
articles drawn from The Indian Ladies Magazine

Week 8: The First African Novel in English?:

Joseph Jeffrey Walters, Guyana Pau

Week 9: Revolution and Revelation:

Sun Yat-sen, Kidnapped in London

Week 10: Traveller's Tales:
Extracts from T.N. Mukarji, A Visit to Europe; Ham Mukasa, Uganda’s Katikiro in England; Soseki, 'The Tower of London'

Term 2: The Twentieth Century

Week 1: Re-imagining History I:

Sol Plaatje, Mudhi

Week 2: Re-imagining History II:

Paul Scott, 'Staying On'

Week 3: Re-imagining History III:

R.K. Narayan, Waiting for the Mahatma

Week 4: Anglophone Drama: South Africa:

Athol Fugard, Master Harold and the Boys

Week 5: Anglophone Drama: Singapore:
Stella Kon, Emily of Emerald Hill

Week 6: Reading Week

Week 7: Looking Backward from Diaspora II:

Harold Sonny Ladoo, No Pain Like This Body

Week 8: Looking Backward from Diaspora II:

Bessie Head, A Question of Power

Week 9: Looking Backward from Diaspora III:

Ama ata Aido: Our Sister Killjoy

Week 10: Looking Backward from Diaspora
IV:

Kamala Markandaya, Nowhere Man

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