(PS) “Tales of Power and Resistance” — An Introduction to Postcolonial Short Stories

In Rupert Kipling’s famous poem “The White Man's Burden”, the British are depicted as a nation that altruistically sacrifices itself to save the world. We will take a closer look at this claim and ask questions such as: “How did the British manage to create an Empire that covered nearly a quarter of the world's land surface and to rule over 458 million people?”, “What were the motives behind this extraordinary expansion”, and “How did the British – or other colonial powers – justify it?” 

This introductory seminar focuses on the close reading of exemplary (post)colonial short stories by writers such as W. Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad, Doris Lessing but also by Qaisra Shahraz, Salman Rushdie and Hanif Kureishi to critically discuss the British Empire and its aftermath. Moreover, this seminar offers a short introduction to Postcolonialism and its historical background to better contextualize our readings. Since this course is also aimed at students who have not yet attended the lecture “Introduction to Literary Studies”, a few sessions will focus on the question of how to read and analyze literary texts as well as on the concept of literature.

A syllabus and a bibliography will be provided at the first meeting.