Studies in Literature and Culture (385-0-21)
Topic
Romantic Obsession, Colonial Possession
Instructors
Johana Staza Godfrey
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L28: Mon, Wed 9:30AM - 10:50AM
Overview of class
Topic: Romantic Obsession, Colonial Possession: Romancing 19th and 20th-Century Colonial Literature
Pocahontas and John Smith are making goofy, animated eyes at each other as British colonials push further into the New England interior. Outlander's Claire and Jamie steal passionate moments during the fight for Scottish independence. And when he died, David Ochterlony—British Resident to the Mughal Court in the early 1800s—left behind thirteen Indian wives. This course asks: how and why are the tropes of possessive romance so often refigured in the colonial context? What can tracing these affects, fetishes, and motifs allow us to uncover about the emotional resonances of imperialist discourse and resistance? After grounding ourselves in classic tales of romantic obsession, we will map these romantic forms onto larger concepts of empire. Edward Said described the Orientalist impulse as "fatally tend[ing] toward the systematic accumulation of human beings and territories." To trace these fatal, obsessive drives to possess, we will move from classic novels like Brontë's Wuthering Heights and George Orwell's Burmese Days to shorter texts such as Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star and V.S. Naipaul's "In a Free State." Films include Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. This course will also include readings in postcolonial and affect theory.
Teaching Method
Seminar discussion, group exercises.
Evaluation Method
Participation, discussion posts, short analytical paper, final project.
Class Materials (Required)
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847); Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" (1973); Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star (1977); Jane Campion's The Piano (1993); Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area