Humanities 2500/History 4995
Imperialism and the
Humanities
Tolentine 310C – MWF
10:30-11:20
Spring 2004
Dr. Eugene McCarraher
Office: 475 SAC
Office Hours: MWF 11:30-12:30 or by appointment
Office Phone: 9-4796
E-mail: Eugene.mccarraher@villanova.edu
Course Description
Often considered the rhetorical property of the radical left,
“imperialism” is slowly becoming part of the common currency of American
political discourse. Before the “war on terrorism” and the invasion of Iraq,
“imperialism” was, in mainstream culture, either an iniquity of America’s foes –
the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union – or a polemical stand-by of the embattled
left, decrying the “capitalist imperialism” of a rapacious West or the “cultural
imperialism” of the American culture industries. But now, when even
conservative intellectuals and politicians will openly (if hesitantly) talk of
“necessary imperialism,” the study of imperial ambition can no longer be
stigmatized or avoided. However unstable or contested, the American sway over
the contemporary world mandates the study of imperialism.
In this course, we will approach the study of imperialism from a number of angles and with a number of questions. We will examine imperialism from the standpoints of the different humanities: history, literature, philosophy, theology, art, and music. We will read historical studies, philosophical reflections, theological meditations, personal memoirs, novels, and plays; peruse representations in a variety of media of the imperial and imperialized gazes; listen to the chords of the Orientalized Egypt in Verdi’s Aida. While doing so, we will consider a number of questions. What is imperialism? What have been the persisting and changing goals and methods of imperial powers? How have the encounters between imperialist and imperialized shaped the identities and histories of both? How have the imperialized resisted, accommodated, or welcomed imperialist domination? What can we learn from the different humanities about the experience of dominating or being dominated?
Texts
The following books are required and can be purchased at the university bookstore.
Aime Cesaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Euripides, The Trojan Women
Eduardo Galeano, Upside Down
C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place
Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children
Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism
Edward Said, Out of Place
Richard Tuck, The Rights of War and Peace
You will also receive some shorter assignments which
will be available either on-line or in photocopied form.
Essays, Class Discussion, Term Paper, and Grading Policy
Because this is a seminar that is “writing-enriched,” your essays, term paper, and contributions to class discussion are decisive in determining your grade. I will assign four essays in the course of the semester, ranging from 3-5 or 3-7 pages in length. You will turn in a draft of each essay (outlines, sketches, and “good ideas” will not be accepted), which I will criticize and return to you for revision. The final copy will usually be due a week after you turn in your draft, so I will return these drafts to you promptly. Each of these essays will comprise 10% of your final grade. Well-informed and frequent participation in class discussion is also indispensable, and it will constitute 35% of your grade. The term paper must be 10-15 pages in length (text), and deal with some topic related to imperialism. It can explore an author or theme already covered in this course, or it can deal with a subject not included on the syllabus. I would like you to have a paper topic by February 25, when you will present your project to the class for discussion. Due on May 1, the term paper will constitute 25% of your final grade.
My attendance and plagiarism policies follow those outlined in the Enchiridion, the Villanova University student handbook.
Course Schedule
January 12 – Introduction
January 14 – *Thucydides, “The Melian Dialogue,” from The Peloponnesian War;
* Plato, The Republic
January 16 – Euripides, The Trojan Women
January 19 – Martin Luther King Day – No Class
January 21 – Euripides, The Trojan Women
*Simone Weil, “The Iliad –The Poem of Force”
January 23 – *Tacitus, Annals of Imperial Rome and Agricola
January 26 – *Augustine, City of God
January 28 – *Edmund Spenser, View of the Present State of Ireland
January 30 – Tuck, Rights of War and Peace, introduction, chaps. 1-2;
February 2 – Tuck, Rights of War and Peace, chaps. 3-5
Draft of Paper #1 due
February 4 – Tuck, Rights of War and Peace, chap. 6
February 6 – Tuck, Rights of War and Peace, chap. 7, conclusion
February 9 – James, The Black Jacobins, preface, chaps. 1-5
Paper #1 due
February 11 – James, The Black Jacobins, chaps. 6-9
February 13 – James, The Black Jacobins, chaps. 10-13, appendix
February 16 – *Verdi, Aida (libretto); Said, Culture and Imperialism, 111-32
February 18 – No Class
February 20 – Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Draft of Paper #2 due
February 23 – Conrad, Heart of Darkness
February 25 – Discussion of term paper topics
February 27 – Said, Culture and Imperialism, 19-31, 132-62
Paper #2 due
March 1 – March 5 – SPRING BREAK
March 8 – Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, Book One
March 10 – Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, Book Two
March 12 – Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, Book Three
March 15 -- *Thomas Morton, New English Canaan;
*Mary Rowlandson, Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration
Of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson;
*Herman Melville, “The Metaphysics of
Indian-Hating,” from The
Confidence Man
March 17 -- *Michael Paul Rogin, “Liberal Society and the Indian Question”
March 19 – *Randolph Bourne, “War and the Intellectuals” and “The State”
March 22 -- Cesaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land
Draft of Paper #3 due
March 24 – Cesaire, Notebook;
*Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
*Said, Culture and Imperialism, 169-85
March 26 -- Kincaid, A Small Place, 3-37
March 29 -- Kincaid, A Small Place, 41-81
Paper #3 due
March 31 -- Said, Out of Place
April 2 -- Said, Out of Place
April 5 – Said, Out of Place
April 7 – *Marx, “The British Rule in India”
*Hobson, Imperialism
*Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
April 9 -- Good Friday – No Class
April 12 --Easter Monday – No Class
April 14 --*Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival;
*Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire
*Tariq Ali, The Clash of Fundamentalisms
April 16 -- *Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles;
*The National Security Strategy of the United States of America
Draft of Paper #4 due
April 19 -- *Dorothy Dinnerstein, The Mermaid and the Minotaur
April 21 – Said, Culture and Imperialism, 282-336
April 23 – Galeano, Upside Down, 3-129
Paper #4 due
April 26 – Galeano, Upside Down, 133-243
April 27 -- Galeano, Upside Down, 247-337
April 28 -- *John Milbank, “Sovereignty, Empire, Capital, and Terror”;
*Slavoj Zizek, “Welcome to the Desert of the Real!”
May 6 – Term Paper Due