ENG 335: British Literature After 1900: British Empire and the Literature of Loss
Spring 2023 `
MWF: 11:30-12:20; SAKAMAKI C 102
Nandini Chandra
nc8@hawaii.edu
Office Hours: by appointment
Course Description (Ethics Focus 30 %)
The late colonial English character is typically defined by notions of self-possession, fairness, and unwavering resilience in the face of adversity. This spirit of adventure and toughness owes a lot to the power of the British empire, and its supremacy over other colonizing and capitalist nations. The English actively colonized their immediate neighbors too—the Welsh, the Irish, and the Scots. The myth of a monolithic English identity is belied by the fact that the majority of twentieth-century English authors are “non-English”. In this class, we will read against the grain of this dominant English character, and see how narratives of victory are invariably haunted by loss and otherness.
One example of this loss is the domestic evacuation of children to the countryside following the German bombings of England during the second World War. Before this domestic dislocation, the Kindertransport project had rescued 10,000 children from Nazi Germany and sent them to England. The psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott said the domestic dislocation of children was far worse than if the children had died in the bombings. Our class’s ethical focus is based on this kind of problematic: what are the necessary conditions for life to be worth living/not worth living. We will read both historically specific stories about traumatic dislocations as well as narratives that are more figuratively related to loss and mourning.
The war also brought a number of Freud’s disciples to London whose work focused intently on children’s mental health. The thirty-year period after the war witnessed the emergence of impressive innovations in psychoanalytic theory that have a direct bearing on ethical concerns: ego defense mechanisms (Anna Freud), good and bad objects (Melanie Klein), the relationship between play and reality (Donald Winnicott), etc.—which were the outcome of close clinical studies of children (still a distinctive feature of British psychoanalysis). Although bitterly divided in their theories and methods, these analysts agreed on the need to recognize children’s fantasies of violence and destruction as the means for restoring their psychological health. Our course examines these lines of psychoanalytic inquiry as they have shaped feminist theory, in order to explore the gendered dimension of psychological capacities. We examine the different scenarios of regression or “acting out” in fiction whereby boys and girls strive to achieve a “true self.” How does the tumult and violence of wartime England become a crucible for our understanding of gender and sexuality?
“This course has a Contemporary Ethical Issues (E) Focus designation. Contemporary ethical issues are fully integrated into the main course material and will constitute at least 30% of the content. At least 8 hours of class time will be spent discussing ethical issues. Through the use of lectures, discussions and assignments, students will develop basic competency in recognizing and analyzing ethical issues; responsibly deliberating on ethical issues; and making ethically determined judgments.”
Books
You have to purchase only two texts at the UHM bookstore:
Muriel Spark (1961). The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
W G Sebald (2001). Austerlitz
All other pdf versions will be posted on Laulima and the drive folder of google classroom.
Assignments include weekly quizzes, an oral group presentation, a close reading of a scenario focussing on the ethics readings, and an argument-based final paper.
Our readings and activities will be directed towards fulfilling the following Student Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the violent history of the British empire and its participation in World War II, and how this violence backfired on its most vulnerable child-subjects: how does this internal violence become the foundation for child psychotherapy?
- Demonstrate knowledge of the diversity of so-called British authors who are very often not English in their origins;
- Demonstrate an increased capacity to analyze childhood as the site upon which gendered and sexual identities are formed. You will appreciate how class, race and religion become entangled in the framing of an ethical-childhood focus;
- Demonstrate an ability to identify the ethical issues that arise in connection with creating and consuming texts from the Empire;
- Demonstrate a capacity to apply relevant frameworks for ethical deliberation intrinsic to traumatic childhood memoirs.