Sir John Mandeville travelling to Constantinople. From a Bohemian manuscript of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, c. 1410.

An empire must first be imagined before it can become a reality. Though we tend to think of empire as the product of military might and political intrigue, the premise of this class is that empire is also born out of the imaginative power of fiction, drama, and poetry. 

We will test this theory through a broad survey of various plays, novels, and travel narratives that cover the period from even before the discovery of the Americas to the dawn of a British overseas empire in the eighteenth century.


Detailed Description of Course Readings

Assignments and Tentative Schedule

About the Professor