[ Wesleyan Home Page ] [ WesMaps Home Page ] [ WesMaps Archive ] [ Course Search ] [ Course Search by CID ]
Academic Year 2004/2005

British Historiographic Fiction
ENGL 329 SP

This course will examine the wave of fiction produced in Great Britain that has come to be called historiographic. Written by a generation of writers whose most prominent figures include immigrants from Britain's former colonies, these novels attempt to provide a new, post-imperial account of Britain's past. We will attend to both the critiques of historiographic practice that they mount, and the revisionist histories that they construct. We will also work to excavate the contemporary economic, political and cultural factors to which these texts implicitly refer, examining how the present is implicated in representations of the past.

MAJOR READINGS

Selected texts may include MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, Salman Rushdie; A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 10 1/2 CHAPTERS, Julian Barnes; SEXING THE CHERRY, Jeannette Winterson; WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS, Kazuo Ishiguro.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Two short papers (3-5 pages), one longer paper (10-12 pages).

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-21-2005

Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email

Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459