1. Goldsmiths College
BA SCCP PACE
NATION STATES: THE IDEA OF NATION IN
MODERN LITERATURE
Course Tutors: Francis Gilbert and Emma Grundy Haigh
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2. Aims of the unit
1. To examine an important area of cultural theory which deals with issues of nation, nationality, race and
identity.
2. To explore issues of representation in relation to literary culture.
3. To help students develop writing and research skills.
Learning Outcomes:
A. Knowledge and Understanding
You will be required to:
1. develop a systematic understanding of a social and cultural studies knowledge base;
2. develop knowledge of methodological issues in the study of literature and culture;
3. develop techniques for contrasting and comparing critical approaches literary culture.
B. Transferable skills and other attributes
Students taking this course unit will be able to:
1. critically evaluate ideas and information;
2. construct and illustrate reasoned argument;
3. communicate complex information in a range of ways;
4. frame appropriate questions to achieve solutions to problems;
5. evaluate and reflect critically on their own learning processes.
Method of Assessment:
You are required to produce two essays of 2,000 words (one in the first term and one in the second) (60%) and
to answer two questions in a two-hour take home paper examination (40%). All learning outcomes will be
assessed in both modes of assessment.
Assessment Criteria:
The assessment criteria for written work and presentations are as follows:
i) the success with which you have addressed the topic in question and whether there has been an answer
given to the question (i.e. relevance) [learning outcomes 1, 2, 3,and 4];
ii) the originality, ambition, and scope of the essay/presentation in terms of the topic being addressed (i.e.
content) [learning outcomes 1 and 2];
iii) the structure and form of the essay/presentation (i.e. argument) [learning outcomes 5, 6, 7 and 8];
iv) the delivery of the essay/presentation in terms of attention to clarity of expression, and technical clarity
(i.e. expression) [learning outcomes 7 and 8].
Assessment levels are consistent with those established across the degree framework:
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3. Generic Grading and Specific Grading Criteria (marking criteria)
Mark Descriptor Generic grading Criteria Specific Grading Criteria (Marking
% Criteria)
0 Non-submission A categorical mark representing n/a
or plagiarised either the failure to submit an
assessment assessment or a mark assigned for
a plagiarised assessment
1–9 Very bad fail A submission that does not even n/a
attempt to address the specified
learning outcomes (shall be
deemed a non-valid attempt and
unit must be re-sat).
10–24 Bad fail Represents a significant overall A very limited understanding of a social and
failure to achieve the appropriate cultural studies knowledge base. Very
limited argumentation; little or no
learning outcomes (shall be
evaluation.
deemed a valid attempt and not
necessarily required to be re-sat).
25–39 Fail Represents an overall failure to A limited understanding of a social and
achieve the appropriate learning cultural studies knowledge base.
outcomes. Limited argumentation; little evaluation.
40–49 Pass Represents the overall achievement A limited understanding of a social and
of the majority of the appropriate cultural studies knowledge base. Some
learning outcomes to a pass level. argumentation; limited evaluation.
50–59 Good Represents the overall Understanding of a social and cultural
achievement of the appropriate studies knowledge base. Clear
learning outcomes to a good level. argumentation and
evaluation.Understanding of
methodological issues.
60–69 Very good Represents the overall Full understanding of a social and
achievement of the appropriate cultural studies knowledge base.
learning outcomes to a very good Complex argumentation and
level. evaluation.Understanding of
methodological issues.
70–79 Excellent Represents the overall Full understanding of a social and cultural
achievement of the appropriate studies knowledge base. Complex
learning outcomes to an excellent argumentation and evaluation.
level. Understanding of methodological issues.
Comparative. Self reflective.
80–89 Outstanding Represents the overall Deep understanding of a social and cultural
achievement of the appropriate studies knowledge base. Complex
learning outcomes to an argumentation and evaluation. Deep
outstanding level. understanding of methodological issues.
Comparative. Self reflective.
90–100 Exceptional Represents the overall As above but will be stylistically exceptional
achievement of the appropriate and may show elements of originality.
learning outcomes to an
exceptionally accomplished level.
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4. Venues and times:
Wednesdays 10.00–12.00
Term 1: weeks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 & 11 Richard Hoggart Building, Room 256
Term 1: weeks 3, 9 Richard Hoggart Building, Room 300
Term 2: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 251
Term 3: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 251
Deadlines:
Essay 1: Wednesday 7 December [term 1, wk 10]
IP proposals final deadline 23 November [wk 8]
Essay 2: Wednesday 22 March [term 2, wk 10]
IP proposals final deadline 7 March [wk 8]
Course Outline:
Please note: it is essential that you come to class prepared each week having read the text(s) for
discussion. You are strongly advised to keep up with selected readings from the secondary
recommended reading list.
Term 1: Nations/Colonies; States/Borders – Postcolonial Modernity with a focus upon
the Caribbean.
5/12 October (wks 1/2): Introduction – literature, nation, nationality, collective identities,
stereotypes... (FG)
Texts for discussion: Paula Burnett, The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse in English (Penguin,
1986).
Bob Marley, various songs.
Ian Fleming, Live and Let Die (film [1973] dir. Guy Hamilton/book [1954],
any edition).
Critical texts: George Lamming, ‘The Occasion for Speaking’, in Ashcroft, Griffiths and
Tiffin, The Post-Colonial Studies Reader [PCSR], pp.14–18.
Benedict Anderson, ‘Cultural Roots’ in Imagined Communities (1983),
pp.9–36.
Gauria Viswanathan, ‘The Beginning of English Literary Study in British
India’, in Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, PCSR, pp.376–80.
Nadine Kavanagh, ‘What Better Advertisement Could Australia Have’?
Encyclopaedias and Nation-Building? (2010), National Identities, vol. 13/3,
pp.237–52.
19 October (wk 3): Modern Caribbean literature – postcolonialities (FG)
Text for discussion: Earl Lovelace, The Dragon Can’t Dance (any edition).
Critical texts: Edward Kamau Braithwaite ‘Nation Language’, in Ashcroft, Griffiths and
Tiffin, PCSR, pp.281–4.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in Ashcroft,
Griffiths and Tiffin, PCSR, pp.28–37.
26 October (wk 4): Post-colonialism and feminism (FG)
NOTE: 1st coursework assignment issued.
Text for discussion: Andrea Levy, Small Island (any edition).
Critical texts: http://www.andrealevy.co.uk/reviews/index.php
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5. Edwards Said, ‘Orientalism’ (1978), in Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin,
PCSR, pp.24–7.
2 November (wk 5): Anglo-Afro-Caribbean identities (FG )
Texts for discussion: John Agard, Listen Mr Oxford Don.
Linton Kwesi-Johnson England Is a Bitch.
Benjamin Zephaniah, various poetry.
Newspaper/media reports about the 2011 riots.
Critical text: Edwards Said, ‘Orientalism’, in Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, PCSR,
pp.24–7.
The MacPherson Report about the Brixton Riots (24 February 1999).
9 November (wk 6): Reading Week
16 November (wk 7): Englishness in the 19th century (EGH)
Text for discussion: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics, 1996/2003).
Critical texts: Johanna de Groot, ‘ “Sex” and “Race”: the Construction of Language and
Image in the Nineteenth Century’ in Catherine Hall (ed.), Cultures of
Empire: A Reader (2000), pp.37–60.
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Guber, ‘A Dialogue of Self and Soul’, in The Mad
Woman in the Attic, pp.336–371.
23 November (wk 8): Redefining, realigning, recovering (FG)
IP proposals due.
Text for discussion: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966, any edition).
Critical texts: Sandra Gilbert and Susan Guber, ‘Infection of the Sentence’, in The Mad
Woman in the Attic, pp.45–92.
Helen Tiffen, ‘Post-colonial Literatures and Counter-discourse’, in
Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, PCSR, pp.99–101.
30 November (wk 9): The Imperialist Self/the Imperialist Other (EGH)
Text for discussion: Rudyard Kipling, Kim (W.W. Norton, 2002).
Critical texts: Abdul R Jan Mohammed, ‘The Economy of Manichean Allegory’, in PCSR,
Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, pp.18–23.
Reina Lewis, ‘On Veiling, Vision and Voyage’, in Ashcroft, Griffiths and
Tiffin, PCSR, pp.313–6.
Phillip E. Wegner, ‘ “Life as He Would Have It”: The Invention of India in
Kipling’s Kim’, Cultural Critique, 26 (Winter, 1993–4), pp.129–159
[available at JSTOR].
7/14 December (wks Recovered Identities (FG)
10/11): NOTE: 1st coursework assignment DUE (7 December).
Text for discussion: E.M. Forster, Howards End (Penguin).
Critical texts: Len Platt, ‘Germanism, the Modern and “England” – 1880–1930: a literary
overview’ in Modernism and Race (2011).
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6. Term 2: Case Study: Ireland
11 January (wk 1): Cultural background (EGH)
Text for discussion: The Commitments, dir. Alan Parker (1991).
Critical text: Luke Gibbons, ‘Introduction: Culture, History and Irish Identity’ in
Transformations in Irish Culture (1996), pp.1–22.
18/25 January (wks 2/3): Landlordism and Revivalism (EGH)
Text for discussion: Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent (Oxford World’s Classics, 1999).
Critical texts: Susan B. Egenolf, ‘Maria Edgeworth in Blackface: Castle Rackrent and the
Irish Rebellion of 1798’ in ELH, 72/4 (Winter, 2005), pp.845–869
[available at JSTOR].
Esther Wohlgemut, ‘Maria Edgeworth and the Question of National
Identity’, in Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, 39/4, (Autumn,
1999), pp. 645–658 [available at JSTOR].
1 February (wk 4): Catholic realism (EGH)
NOTE: 2nd coursework assignment issued.
Text for discussion: James Joyce, The Dubliners (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008).
Critical text: Vincent Cheng, Joyce, Race and Empire (1995), pp.77–128.
8 February (wk 5): Catholic realism (EGH)
Text for discussion: Bram Stoker, Dracula (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008).
Critical text: tbc
15 February (wk 6): Reading week
22 February (wk 7): Nation, Place and Language (EGH)
Text for discussion: Eavan Boland, In a Time of Violence (1994, any edition).
Critical texts: Paul Carter, ‘Naming Place’, in Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, PCSR,
pp.351–4.
Catriona Clutterbuck, ‘Eavan Boland and the Politics of Authority in Irish
Poetry’, in The Yearbook of English Studies, 35 (MHRA, 2005), pp.72–90
[available at JSTOR].
29 February (wk 8): Celtic Troubles (EGH)
IP proposals due.
Text for discussion: Seamus Heaney, North (1975, any edition).
Critical texts: Derek Walcott, ‘The Muse of History’, in Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin,
PCSR, pp.329–32.
Paul Carter, ‘Spatial History’, in Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, PCSR,
pp.333–5.
7/14 March Postcolonial/Post-modern (EGH)
(wks 9/10): NOTE: 2nd coursework assignment DUE (14 March).
Text for discussion: Flann O’Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds (Penguin Modern Classics, 2000).
Critical texts: Luke Gibbons, ‘Identity without a Centre: Allegory, History and Irish
Nationalism’, in Transformations in Irish Culture (1996), pp. 134–147.
Kim McMullen, ‘Culture as Colloquy: Flann O’Brien’s Postmodern
Dialogue with Irish Tradition’, NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, 27/1
(Autumn, 1993), pp. 62–84 [available on JSTOR].
21 March (wk 11): Course review (EGH)
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7. Term 3: Wrap-up and review
25 April, 2/9 May: Revision (EGH/FG)
Literary Texts
Agard, John. Listen, Mr Oxford Don, 1985.
Boland, Eavan. In a Time of Violence, 1994, any edition.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre, Penguin Classics, 1996/2003.
Burnett, Paula. The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse in English, Penguin, 1986.
The Commitments, dir. Alan Parker, 1991.
Edgeworth, Maria. Castle Rackrent, Oxford World’s Classics, 1999.
Fleming, Ian. Live and Let Die, 1954, any edition.
Forster, E.M. Howards End (Penguin).
Heaney, Seamus. North, 1975, any edition.
Joyce, James. The Dubliners, Oxford World’s Classics, 2008.
Kipling, Rudyard. Kim (W.W. Norton, 2002).
Kwesi-Johnson, Linton. England Is a Bitch.
Levy, Andrea. Small Island, 2004, any edition.
Live and Let Die, dir. Guy Hamilton, 1973.
O’Brien, Flann. At Swim-Two-Birds, Penguin Modern Classics, 2000.
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966, any edition.
Zephaniah, Benjamin. various poetry.
Critical reading
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism, Verso,
1989.
Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, eds. The Empire Writes Back, Routledge Kegan & Paul,
2006.
—, eds. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, Routledge, 2006.
Attridge Derek, and Marjorie Howe (eds.). Semicolonial Joyce. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Bhabha, Homi K (ed.), Nation and Narration, Routledge, 1990.
Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors, Oxford University Press, 2005.
Brannigan, John. Race in Modern Irish Literature and Culture. Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
Cheng, Vincent J. Joyce, Race and Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Cleary, Joe. Literature, Partition and the Nation State: Culture and Conflict in Ireland, Israel and Palestine.
Cambridge University Press, 2001.
—, Outrageous Fortune: Capital and Culture in Modern Ireland. Dublin: Field Day, 2007.
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8. Clutterbuck, Catriona. ‘Eavan Boland and the Politics of Authority in Irish Poetry’, in The Yearbook of
English Studies, 35 (MHRA, 2005), pp.72–90 [available at JSTOR].
Deane, Seane. Celtic Revivals: Essays in Modern Irish Literature. Faber and Faber, 1985
Dwan, David. The Great Continuity: Culture and Nationalism in Ireland. Dublin: Field Day, 2008.
Egenolf, Susan B. ‘Maria Edgeworth in Blackface: Castle Rackrent and the Irish Rebellion of 1798’ in ELH,
72/4 (Winter, 2005), pp.845–869 [available at JSTOR].
Gibbons, Luke. Transformations in Irish Culture. Cork University Press, 1996.
Gibson, Andrew and Len Platt (eds.). Joyce, Ireland Britain. University Press of Florida, 2006.
Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Guber. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-
century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Hall, Catherine (ed.). Cultures of Empire: A Reader. Manchester University Press, 2000.
Hobsbawn, E. J. Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge University
Press, 1990.
Hutchinson, John. The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism: The Gaelic Revival and the Creation of the Irish
Free State. Allen and Unwin, 1987.
Kiberd, Declan. Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation. Jonathan Cape, 1995.
Kavanagh, Nadine. ‘What Better Advertisement Could Australia Have’? Encyclopaedias and Nation-
Building? (2010), National Identities, vol. 13/3, pp.237–52.
Lazarus, Neil. The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies, Cambridge University Press,
2004.
Lloyd, David. Irish Times: Temporalities of Modernity. Field Day, 2008.
MacPherson Report. 24 February 1999.
McMullen, Kim. ‘Culture as Colloquy: Flann O’Brien’s Postmodern Dialogue with Irish Tradition’, NOVEL: A
Forum on Fiction, 27/1 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 62–84 [available on JSTOR].
Nolan, Emer. James Joyce and Nationalism. Routledge, 1995.
Said, Edward. Orientalism, 1978
Phillip E. Wegner, ‘ “Life as He Would Have It”: The Invention of India in Kipling’s Kim’, Cultural Critique,
26 (Winter, 1993–4), pp.129–159 [available at JSTOR].
Williams, Eric. From Columbus to Castro: A History of the Caribbean from 1492-1970, Andre Deutsch,
1970.
Wohlgemut, Esther. ‘Maria Edgeworth and the Question of National Identity’, in Studies in English
Literature, 1500–1900, 39/4, (Autumn, 1999), pp. 645–658 [available at JSTOR].
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9. Essays and Independent Projects
You are required to produce 2 essays, or 1 essay and 1 Independent Project, of 2,000 words (not counting the
bibliography), one in the first term and one in the second. These will comprise 60% of your final mark and
will be assessed according to the Assessment Criteria noted above (see pp.2–3). Do NOT use the same text as
the main focus of more than one essay.
Before writing, you must consult the section on ‘Writing & Presenting Essays’ in your programme handbook–
and then take special care with conventions for quotations and references. Please take care to ensure your
name and the course title both appear on the front page or cover.
Should you choose to do an Independent Project [IP], you must submit a proposal for approval a minimum of
TWO WEEKS before the standard essay deadline. Proposals should include:
(a) A working title;
(b) A 200-word abstract, outlining your subject and what you hope to prove;
(c) A minimum of 1 literary text that will be the basis of your essay;
(d) A minimum of 6 critical sources that will support your essay.
You are strongly advised to submit your proposal in advance of the final proposal deadline, so that you have
time to resubmit if rejected. IPs will ONLY be accepted on the basis of a pre-approved proposal.
NOTE: Late essays will not be accepted. Extensions will only be granted in exceptional circumstances.
Requests for extensions must be made in advance of the deadline.
Sample Essay Titles
1. Why has the idea of a national language been problematic for Caribbean writing?
2. Discuss the significance of ‘place’ in Caribbean writing?
3. Examine the treatment of ONE of the following in Caribbean writing:
(a) Empire (c) The idea of rebellion
(b) The USA (d) Race
4. Discuss the Victorian sense of Englishness as it is conveyed in the writing of the period.
5. Why has ‘aristocracy’ been an important idea in the writing of the period?
6. Consider the treatment of ONE of the following in English writing:
(a) History (c) Urbanisation
(b) Trade and empire (d) Orientalism
7. Why has ‘revivalism’ been so important to postcolonial writers?
8. In what ways has postcolonial writing of the period been ‘political’?
9. How does the postcolonial conflict with/complement other forms of critical engagement (i.e. feminism,
postmodernism, Marxism, etc.)
10. Consider the treatment of ONE of the following in Irish writing:
(a) the land (c) Irish mythology
(b) the ‘Troubles’ (d) the English
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