This module examines literary and visual representations of British Caribbean slavery between the 1790s and the 1860s and in our own postcolonial moment and explores the relationships between these two bodies of historically distinct but thematically interconnected materials. Indicative topics include:

• The Middle Passage
• Pro-slavery Discourse
• Abolitionist Discourse and the Question of Sugar
• Slavery and the Gothic
• Creole Identities and Anxieties
• Plantation Culture, Sexual Violence and Miscegenation
• Strategies of Resistance
• Orality and Literacy
• Intertextualities
• Questions of Representation: Making and Breaking the Silence

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the ways in which the institution of British Caribbean slavery was represented (and contested) during its own time and how writers of the postcolonial era have variously looked back to, reimagined and expanded the historical materials on which they draw.

The module will be delivered by a combination of one 1-hr lecture and one 2-hr seminar per week for one semester. The lectures will give an overview of the materials and ways of approaching them and be supported by handouts, usually available to students on Learning Central at least 24 hours beforehand. Seminars will provide students with a variety of learning opportunities including close textual analysis, small group discussion and informal presentation.

The particular skills of this module entail understanding the changing nature of literary and visual representations of British Caribbean slavery from the 1790s to the present day. Emphasis is placed on close reading informed by historical awareness and recent critical debates in the field. Employability skills include the ability to synthesise information; operating in group-based discussion involving negotiating ideas; and producing clear, cogent and informed arguments in a professional manner.

Essay (3200 words) = 100%

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

In accordance with University regulations, students are allowed two attempts at retrieval of any failed essay, for a maximum module mark of 40%.  Resit assessments are held over the summer.

The main readings for this module are books and journal articles. Students should contact the module leader as early as possible if they will require readings in an alternative format.

Indicative Syllabus

Week

1          Module Introduction / Introduction to the Middle Passage
2          Abolitionist Discourse and the Politics of Sugar
3          Matthew Lewis, Journal of a West India Proprietor
4          Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
5          George Eliot, ‘Brother Jacob’
6          READING WEEK
7          Grace Nichols, I is a Long Memoried Woman
8          David Dabydeen, Turner
9          Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
10         Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
11         Preparing for the Assessment

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, ed. Margaret Smith (OUP, 1998)
David Dabydeen, Turner in Turner: New and Selected Poems (Cape, 1994)
George Eliot, ‘Brother Jacob’ in ‘The Lifted Veil’ and ‘Brother Jacob’, ed. Helen
Small (OUP, 1999)
Matthew Lewis, Journal of a West India Proprietor, ed. Judith Terry (OUP, 1999)
Grace Nichols, I is a Long Memoried Woman (Karnak House, 1990)
Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger (Penguin, 1992)

Further information about recommended reading will be provided at the start of the module.