ESH6067 - Writing Empire: the Eighteenth Century - 2023/24

Students on this module read a range of eighteenth-century writing (such as novels, memoirs, essays, travel writing, poetry and philosophy) associated with the history of empire, focusing on the Caribbean and the South Pacific. Students will develop an understanding of literary and philosophical writing in relation to historically-enduring issues and ideas about empire, race and colony. Topics for discussion may include the English encounter with the non-European world; the rise of the novel and colonial expansion; cross-cultural encounters; exploration and discovery; slave narrative and anti-slavery debates; colonialism and trade; the representation of cultural difference; and the theory of the colony and the empire.