Department of English

It is no longer possible to read English Literature without engaging with the way in which imperial contact profoundly shaped its major works. This course will introduce students to key works in English from the Renaissance to the present day, looking at the way in which the imperial theme shaped their form as well as their meditations on the human condition. We will read works produced on both sides of the imeprial divide, and the course will probably include writing by William Shakespeare, Daniel Defoe, Aphra Behn, Rudyard Kipling, E M Forster, Joseph Conrad, Salman Rushdie, Declan Kiberd, Hanif Kureishi, Tayib Salih and Ama Ata Aidoo.