Department of English

This course will survey a range of 19th- and 20th-century texts that narrate the colonial encounter from both American and British points of view.   One goal of the course is to do a comparative analysis of the literary traditions associated with these two English-speaking empires.  We will work our way through the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Rider Haggard, Olive Schreiner, Arthur Conan Doyle, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, Graham Greene, and Barbara Kingsolver.  We will also study a few films, including Apocalypse Now, Hearts of Darkness, and The Four Feathers.  Written requirements are likely to include several short response papers, two critical essays, and a take-home final exam.