England After Empire

England After Empire

History & Literature 90ba, Barker Center 128

Fall 2014, Thursdays, 1:00–3:00

Timothy Wientzen, Ph.D.,

Office hours: W/Th, 10:00-12:00, Barker Center 041

What happens to a global superpower when it dies?

With the conclusion of the Second World War, the sun began to set on the British Empire, the largest empire in human history in terms of both geography and population. The progressive dissolution of British colonial powers mandated a broad reimagining of the English nation, as longstanding cultural and political institutions, including the imperial economy, were dismantled. In the decades that followed, tensions about race, class, and gender that had been held in check by two world wars were unleashed, definitively changing England’s image of itself.

Looking at key cultural and political changes that emerged in the wake of empire, this course seeks to introduce students to the network of social and political movements that defined post-imperial English culture. We will begin by looking at the rise of multicultural England as a literary and historical phenomenon, examining primary and secondary documents in the legislative history of colonial emigration, as well as novels by Sam Selvon and Jean Rhys. We will also consider how the new economics of the welfare state influenced gender relations and class dynamics; looking at historical and literary documents, from British feminism to punk rock, we will consider how the influx of new, largely non-white immigrants into England configured the political movements of the post-imperial moment. This course will conclude with a critical examination of English identity and multiculturalism by looking at Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses and the race riots of the 1980s. Ultimately, this course attempts to map the ways in which the loss of colonial power demanded new aesthetic forms and the reorganization of English national identity.

Requirements:

Short papers:Students will write three short papers over the course of the semester, each running to about two pages. In these papers, students will be asked to perform close readings on literary or cultural texts, trace a footnote back to its source, and put the primary and secondary text we read together in an argumentative fashion. Each of these papers should run to about two pages.

These responses are each worth 5% of your final grade and will be used to help structure conversation during class.

Essays: Over the course of the semester, students will write three essays of 6-8 pages, concentrating on specific historical, thematic, and formal aspects of the issues we will explore. I encourage students to craft paper topics that suit their interests, and they are welcome to draw from and expand upon idea they elaborate in their response papers. These essays, however, must take an argumentative position and put literary and historical material into conversation by using the techniques of close reading.

Engagement with the Intellectual Community: Students will also be evaluated on their overall contribution to the intellectual community of the class. Your reflections on the common reading, your critical responses to your peers’ writing, and your active participation in class discussions will all factor into your grade for the course. I expect you to come to every single meeting ready to speak your mind about the topic of the day.

Grading

Short papers (2 pages):

5% - Close reading a literary/cultural text

5% - Follow the footnote exercise

5% - Response paper

Essays (6-8 pages):

20% - First essay

20% - Second essay

25% - Third essay

Participation:

20% - Quality of class involvement, including engagement with the work of your peers.

I assign letter grades to short papers and number grades to essays. If you turn in a late paper or essay, your grade will drop one letter for each day late. (I consider essays a day late as soon as the deadline passes.) I may grant extensions for extenuating circumstances if you request an extension at least 24 hours prior to the due date.

Absentee Policy

The seminar-style nature of this course makes your presence in class imperative. I expect you to attend all scheduled class meetings, but I understand that conflicts inevitably arise. I allow each student one absences without penalty. Each absence after the first will result in a partial-step drop in your final course grade (e.g. an A- becomes a B+, a B becomes a B-, and so on). If severe illness or an emergency causes you to miss more than two class meetings, it is your responsibility to discuss the situation with me. Missing a scheduled meeting with me also counts as an absence.

Policy on Collaboration

Unlike in some courses, collaboration is highly encouraged in this class. This means that you are welcome to assist each other however you see fit, whether by discussing assignments outside of class, peer-reviewing each other’s work, or by sharing information about research. However, all written work should be entirely your own and must use appropriate citation practices to acknowledge the use of books, articles, websites, lectures, discussions, etc., that you have consulted. Information about properly citing sources can be found at the Harvard Guide to Using Sources:

Required Texts

Please do your best to use the editions listed here.

Sam Selvon, Lonely Londoners (1956) [ISBN: 9780582642645]

John Osborne, Look Back in Anger (1956) [ISBN: 0140481753]

Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) [ISBN: 978-0393960129]

Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine (1979) [ISBN: 9781559360999]

Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses: A Novel (1988) [ISBN: 9780812976717]

Films

You are responsible for making sure you’ve viewed our assigned films before the class period in which they’ll be discussed. Class screenings will be scheduled in every case, but situations may arise when you will need to check out the films on your own. Both films are on reserve at the library.

Basil Dearden (dir), Sapphire (1959)

Shane Meadows (dir), This Is England (2006)

SCHEDULE

September 4: Welcome to the shrinking island.

The 1950s

September 11: A New England: Beveridge and the Welfare State

• John Osborn, Look Back in Anger (1956)
• Executive summary of the Beveridge Report:
• Stephanie Spencer, Gender, Work and Education in Britain in the 1950s (2005): 22-48 (“Women and the Welfare State”)

September 18: Civis Britannicus Sum: National Identity & The Empire Windrush

• Sam Selvon, Lonely Londoners (1956) [142 pp]
• Mike Phillips and Trevor Phillips, Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (1998): 1-8 (“A Part of Britain”), 53-71 (“A Happy Ship”), 72-80 (“New Labour: New Nation”).
• Wendy Webster, Imagining home: gender, "race" and national identity, 1945-64 (1998): 25-44 (Chapter 2, “Unbelongings”).
• Kathleen Paul, Whitewashing Britain: “Keeping Britain White,” pp. 111-130.

Close reading response papers, Group A

September 25: Riot: “Keep Britain White”

• Sapphire (1959), directed by Basil Dearden
• Kathleen Paul, Whitewashing Britain: “Tinkering at the Edges of Nationality,” pp. 131-169.
• Mike Phillips and Trevor Phillips, Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (1998): 158-188 (“The Nottingham and Notting Hill Riots” and “Aftermath”).

Close reading response papers, Group B

 First essay due (via email): Monday, September 29 by 9:00 a.m.

The 1960s

October 2: Rivers of Blood

Trip to Houghton Library to meet with Heather Cole, 2:00-3:00.

• Enoch Powell. “Rivers of Blood” speech
• Amy Whipple. “Revisiting the “Rivers of Blood” Controversy: Letters to Enoch Powell.” Journal of British Studies Vol. 48, No. 3 (July 2009), pp. 717-735
• Peter Brooke. “India, Post-Imperialism and the Origins of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ Speech.”The Historical Journal, 50.3 (2007), pp. 669-687 (2007)

Close reading response papers, Group C

October 9: The Politics of Race and Gender

• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) [~192 pages]
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,“Wide Sargasso Sea and a Critique of Imperialism,” in Norton Critical Edition of Wide Sargasso Sea.
• Judith Raiskin,“England: Dream and Nightmare,” in Norton Critical Edition of Wide Sargasso Sea.
• Wendy Webster,Imagining home: gender, "race" and national identity, 1945-64 (1998): 149-182 (Chapter 7, “Domestic Identities”).

Follow the Footnote response papers, Group A

The 1970s

October 16: Post-imperial Feminism

• Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine (1979) [~85 pages]
• Susan Kingsley-Kent, Gender and Power in Britain (1999): 311-334 (“War, welfare, and the postwar ‘consensus’”), 335-355 (“The end of consensus: ‘permissiveness’ and Mrs. Thatcher’s reaction.”)
• John M. Clum, “‘The Work of Culture’: Cloud Nine and Sex/Gender Theory,” in Caryl Churchill: A Casebook (1988): 91-116.

Follow the Footnote response papers, Group B

 Second essay due (via email): Monday, October 20 by 9:00 a.m.

October 23: Class, Gender, and the Politics of Youth Culture

• Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1991): 1-70.
• Ruth Adams, “The Englishness of English Punk: Sex Pistols, Subcultures, and Nostalgia.” Popular Music and Society 31.4 (2008): 469–488
• Angela McRobbie and Jenny Garber, “Girls and Subcultures,” in The Subcultures Reader (1997)
• Caroline O’Meara, “The Raincoats: Breaking Down Punk Rock’s Masculinities,” Popular Music 22:3 (Oct. 2003), 299-313.
• Musical Selections

Follow the Footnote response papers, Group C

October 30: “Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?”: Race & Youth Culture

• Film: This Is England (2006)
• Jon Savage, “England’s Dreaming.” From White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race (2011): 154-170.
• Timothy Brown, “Subcultures, Pop Music and Politics: Skinheads and ‘Nazi Rock’ in England and Germany,” Journal of Social History 38.1 (2004), 157-78.
• Worley, “Shot By Both Sides: Punk, Politics andthe End of ‘Consensus,’” Contemporary British History 26.3 (2012), 333-354.
• Paul Gilroy, Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: 114-135.
• Musical selections

Response papers, Group A

The 1980s

November 6: Multicultural England?

• Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses (1988) [pp. 1-208]
• David Feldman, “Why the English like Turbans: Multicultural Politics in British History,” in Structures and Transformations in British History (2011): 281-302.
• Elizabeth Buettner, “‘Going for Indian’: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain,” Journal of Modern History 80: 4 (2008): 865-901.

Response papers, Group B

November 13: The Rushdie Affair

• Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses (1988) [pp. 209-407]

• BBC documentary, “The Satanic Verses Affair.”

• Talal Asad, “Multiculturalism and British Identity in the Wake of the Rushdie Affair,” Politics and Society 18.4 (1990): 455-480.

Response papers, Group C

November 20: Riot Reprise

• Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses (1988) [pp. 408-561]
• Final paper workshop

 Third essay due by noon on Friday, December 5th

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