Time Schedule:
Tanvi P Patel
ENGL 242
Seattle Campus
Critical interpretation and meaning in works of prose fiction, representing a variety of types and periods.
Class description
For AUTUMN 2007: Migration, Travel and Displacement in British Fiction. The philosopher Augustine was said to have written, "the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." Although in the current age of technology and mass media the passage of information, ideologies and cultures appears to be an ordinary occurrence, this movement leaves lasting impressions on the beliefs, habits and personalities of people. Fiction has often grappled with such notions through the portrayal of migrants and their experiences in distant lands. During the late 19th and 20th century, many British writers focused on such an exchange of knowledge between England to India. In an attempt to focus the reading of fiction, this course will concentrate on the issues of class, mobility, race, national identity, dislocation, adaptation, colonialism and empire as they are written into British fiction. We will read a variety of texts that comment on, and often contest, the traditional historical and social representations of colonialism of India at this time. Fictional writings will be used to generate critical analysis and discussion so that students can attain a better understanding of the ways in which migration confronts the unknown and the unexpected. . In addition to the reading, students will be responsible for participating in class discussions, composing an analytical midterm and final paper, partaking in a group presentation and completing a variety of short writings and quizzes on the texts. Texts: Students will be reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle, Far to Seek by Maud Diver, Passage to India by E.M. Forster, selections from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling and short stories and essays compiled in a course reader.
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