Syllabus
Syllabus for 2026-27
Term 1: The Long Nineteenth Century
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Setting the Theoretical Frame:
Required Reading:
Edward Said, "Introduction, "Orientalism, 32-58
Ngugi wa Thion'go, "The Language of African Literature" in Decolonizing the Mind, 19-49.
Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin, "Introduction," The Empire Writes Back
Recommended Reading:
Aim茅 C茅saire, Discourse on Colonialism
Elleke Boehmer, "The Stirrings of New Nationalism" in Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors, 17-39.
Week 3:
Required Reading:
Mary Seacole, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands
Required Critical Reading:
Kenneth McNeill, "Roots/Routes of Empire: Mary Seacole and Scottish-Caribbean Identity" in Victorian Studies (2024)
Recommended Reading:
Angelia Poon "Comic Acts of (Be)Longing: Performing Englishness in Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands" inVictorian Literature and Culture (2007)
Week 4: The Emergence of Anglophone Writing in India and Southeast Asia: Speculative Fiction
Begum Rokeya Hossein, "Sultana's Dream"
Kylas Chunder Dutt, "A Journal of 48 Hours of the Year 1945" in Wasafiri 21 or Mary Ellis Gibson's Science Fiction in Colonial India, 1835-1905.
Anon., "The Travels of Chong Ching Chang" from theStraits Chinese Magazine(1898) at
Required Critical Reading:
Mary Ellis Gibson, Introduction toScience Fiction in Colonial India, 1835-1905
Recommended Reading:
Rudyard Kipling, "The Mark of the Beast"
Jean Fernandez, "Recognizing the Leper: Hindu Myth, British Medicine, and the Crisis of Realism in Rudyard Kipling's "The Mark of the Beast"
Week 5: The Early Anglophone Novel in India:
Required Reading:
Bankimchandra Cattopadhyaya [or Chatterjee], Rajmohan's Wife
Required Critical Reading:
Amitav Ghosh, from The Great Derangement (pages 16-24)
Recommended Critical Reading:
Sukanya Banarjee, "Troubling Conjugal Loyalties: The First Indian Novel in English and the Transimperial Framework of Sensation."
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Woman's Writing and India:
Cornelia Sorabji, "Stray Thoughts of an Indian Girl"
Cornelia Sorabji, "Behind the Purdah"
Pandita Ramabai, "The Cry of Indian Women'"
Required Critical Reading:
Tara Puri, "Kamala Satthianadan and the Indian Ladies' Magazine"
Week 8: The First African Novel in English?:
Joseph Jeffrey Walters, Guyana Pau
Required Critical Reading:
Gareth Griffiths and Joseph Singler, "Introduction" to Broadview Press edition of Guyanya Pau
Recommended Reading:
Marita, or the Folly of Love, ed. Stephanie Newell
Week 9: Revolution and Revelation:
SUN Yat-sen, Kidnapped in London
Required Critical Reading:
Shan Li, "Sun Yat-sen鈥檚 English Writing and Revolutionary Image after His Kidnapping and Imprisonment in London"
Week 10: Traveller's Tales:
Ham Mukasa, Chapter V of Uganda鈥檚 Katikiro in England
SOSEKI Natsume, "Letter from London" in The Tower of London and Other Stories
T. N. Mukharji, Chapter 2: "First Impressions" in A Visit to Europe
Term 2: The Twentieth Century
Week 1: Re-imagining History I:
Required Reading:
Sol Plaatje, Mudhi
Required Critical Reading:
Graham Huggan, "African Literature and the Anthropological Exotic"
Recommended Critical Reading:
Michael Green, "Generic Instability and the National Project: History, Nation, and Form in Sol T. Plaatje's Mhudi."
Becky Clarke, "The African Writers Series-Celebrating Forty Years of Publishing Distinction."
Week 2: Re-imagining History II:
Required Reading:
Paul Scott, Staying On [Second-hand copies widely available.]
Required Critical Reading:
Bill Schwarz, "Introduction: End of Empire and the English Novel."
Week 3: Re-imagining History III:
R.K. Narayan, Malgudi Days
Required Critical Reading:
Cynthia Vanden Driesen, "R.K. Narayan's Neglected Novel: Waiting for the Mahatma"
Recommended Critical Reading:
Satish C. Aikant, "Colonial Ambivalence in R. K. Narayan's Waiting for the Mahatma"
Week 4: Anglophone Drama: South Africa:
Required Reading:
Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona, Sizwe Bansi Is Dead
Full production at
Required Critical Reading:
Gibson Alessandro Cima, "Resurrecting Sizwe Bansi Is Dead 1972-2008"
Recommended Critical Reading:
Caroline Davis, "Publishing Anti-Apartheid Literature: Athol Fugard's Statement Plays"
Week 5: Anglophone Drama: Singapore:
Required Reading:
Stella Kon, Emily of Emerald Hill
Full production available to view at
Required Critical Reading:
KK Seet, "Once Again With Feeling鈥�: Emily Of Emerald Hill as Floating Signifier"
Recommended Critical Reading:
Kenneth Tan, "Cross-Dress for Success: Performing Ivan Heng and Chowee Leow's 'An Occasional Orchid' and Stella Kon's 'Emily of Emerald Hill' on the Singapore Stage"
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Looking Backward from Diaspora II:
Required Reading:
Harold Sonny Ladoo, No Pain Like This Body
Required Critical Reading:
Peter Such, "The Short Life and Sudden Death of Harry Ladoo"
Week 8: Looking Backward from Diaspora II:
Bessie Head, A Question of Power
Required Critical Reading:
Caroline Davies, "A Question of Power: Bessie Head and her Publishers"
Week 9: Looking Backward from Diaspora III:
Ama ata Aido: Our Sister Killjoy
Required Critical Reading:
Chioma Opara, "Narrative Technique and the Politics of Gender: Ama Ata Aidoo鈥檚 Our Sister Killjoy and No Sweetness Here"
Week 10: Looking Backward from Diaspora IV:
Buchi Emecheta, In the Ditch
Required Critical Reading:
Stuart Hall, "Subjects in History: Making Diasporic Identities"