OVERVIEW

This course is taught in the first semester (36 hours/3 hours a week); lectures are given in English. It is especially devised for first-year LM 38 students, but it is also open to Erasmus and other foreign students visiting Genoa University in the first semester, if their level of English and their knowledge of the cultural contexts are adequate to follow lectures and read the prescribed texts. 

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to familiarise students with aspects, moments and problems of the history of the British Empire from its origins to its dissolution, the debate it was subject to, its literary and cultural representations and manifestations, also in relation to the processes of decolonisation, both from the British perspective and that of other English-speaking countries.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students who have attended classes regularly and actively, and studied the assigned reading list,

- know the main aspects of the historical formation dubbed "New Imperialism": understand its economic and social causes, and have familiarised with the political and cultural debate it provoked;

- are aware of the pervasiveness of imperial issues and rhetoric in late nineteenth-century / early twentieth-century popular culture; can describe and analyse specimens of advertisements, popular songs and visual arts related to colonial goods, imperial events and imperial celebrities;

- have a detailed knowledge of a small corpus of texts dealing with the representation of life, war and adventure in colonial peripheries; can describe their main formal and thematic features; can connect them to specific historical and cultural contexts and, in analysing them, are able to make use of insights and ideas offered by critical studies.

PREREQUISITES

A general knowledge of British literary history (Romanticism to Modernism), an advanced knowledge of spoken and written English, and the ability to read complex literary and critical texts.

TEACHING METHODS

This course will mainly consist of lectures. Some classes will require preparatory individual work at home (flipped classroom). Individual activities resulting in in-class written production will be offered to regularly attending students as part of their assessment.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

This course provides an introduction to the age of so-called "New Imperialism" and the connected cultural production. The survey includes one classic example of adventure novel and a selection of other texts (fictional, poetic, argumentative), or excerpts thereof, representing and/or discussing life, war and adventure in extra-European regions touched by the modernisation process. 

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

All students will have to read H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (ed. by J. Luckhurst, Oxford UP), Luckhurst's introduction to the novel, a selection of other texts (fictional, poetic, argumentative, filmic), and some specimens of relevant critical work, which will be made available on aulaweb or in the departmental library. Main general reference: Ashley Jackson, The British Empire: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2013).

Students who cannot attend regularly and actively will have to refer to the above aulaweb materials, which will include the audiorecordings of all lectures. In addition, they will have to read Anne McClintock, "The White Family of Man: Colonial Discourse and the Invention of Patriarchy", 1985.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Classes will be held in the first semester. Class schedule is still undecided.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Assessment will be based on written examination (in English) involving open questions on all the aspects of the course, and the analysis of at least one excerpt from the prescribed texts. 

Regularly attending students will be allowed to opt for an individual activity (in-class essay writing/guided report) which wiil substitute for part of the final exam.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Students will be asked to demonstrate their knowledge of primary texts and critical bibliography, their understanding of cultural and theoretical issues and their ability to analyse and contextualise extracts from literary/discursive texts. 

FURTHER INFORMATION

Attendance is strongly recommended. At the beginning of the course students will have to enrol in the AulaWeb course. Enrolment for exams is online on the University of Genova website.

Students who have valid certification of physical or learning disabilities on file with the University and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams, should speak both with the instructor and with Prof. Sara Dickinson (sara.dickinson@unige.it), the Department’s disability liaison.

This syllabus is valid till February 2028.