LFU:online

The aim of this course is to familiarise students with key concepts of postcolonial theory for the analysis of texts written in the 18th century.

The most striking quality of the 18th century was its optimism and the celebration of the excellence of the human mind. Many people of the time thought they were passing through a golden period similar to that of the Roman emperor Augustus, thus the name “Augustan” for the early 18th century. The century is also called the Age of Enlightenment as, based on a strong belief in rationality and science, it was critical of traditional institutions, customs, and morals. Our particular focus will be on the second half of the 18th century, including the early Romantic Period featuring writers expressing reservations about enslaving human beings: William Blake’s “Little Black Boy” (1789), Thomas Bellamy’s The Benevolent Planters (1789), William Cowper’s poems from 1788, and Anne Yearsley’s “Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade” (1788). The introduction will address issues of British imperialism, the history of the slave trade/slavery, and the age of enlightenment.

The course is also part of the slavery conference in Innsbruck - organized by myself and the Indiana University in Indianapolis - on June 17-18. Students are going to assist me with the preparations and organization of this conference.

lecture, group discussions, presentations, written paper

group discussion, presentation, written paper

Döring, Tobias. Postcolonial Literatures in English. UNI-WISSEN

Anglistik/Amerikanistik. Stuttgart: Klett, 2008. Print.

McLeod, John. Beginning Postcolonialism. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2000. Print.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Constance Farrington. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1963. Print.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. 1978. London: Penguin, 1985. Print.

Bhabha, Homi. Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge, 1994. Print.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Ed. Cary Nelson, and Lawrence Grossberg. Urbana: Illinois UP, 1988. 271-313. Print.

Castle, Gregory, ed. Postcolonial Discourses: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.

Print.

Balme, Christopher B. Decolonizing the Stage. Theatrical Syncretism and Post-

Colonial Drama. Oxford: Clarendon, 1999. Print.

Gilbert, Helen, and Joanne Tompkins. Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice,

Politics. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.

Gilbert, Helen, ed. (Post)Colonial Stages. Critical Views on Drama, Theatre &

Performance. Hebden Bridge: Dangaroo Press, 1999.  Print.

Barthelemy, Anthony G. Black Face, Maligned Race. The Representation of Blacks

in English Drama from Shakespeare to Southerne. Baton Rouge and London:

Louisiana State University Press, 1987. Print.

Worrall, David. Theatric Revolution. Drama, Censorship and Romantic Period

Subcultures 1773-1832. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.

Boulukos, George. The Grateful Slave. The Emergence of Race in Eighteenth-

Century British and American Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.

Dellarosa, Franca. Slavery on Stage. Representations of Slavery in British Theatre,

1760s-1830s. Bari: Edizioni dal Sud, 2009. Print.

Teacher Training Programme BA 2015: positive completion of compulsory module 13

BA 2015: positive completion of compulsory module 10

BA 2009: positive completion of compulsory moduls 3 and 16

Due to substantial differences in the allocation of ECTS-Credits in various curricula (teacher training program - BA/MA English and American Studies), the requirements for this course vary. Information will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course.