Draft Syllabus
Imagining the Other in European Literature
Fall 2017
3 Credits
Stockholm
Core Class
Study Tour to Oxford
Major Disciplines: Literature
Faculty Member: Jan Holmgaard
Description of course: The course examines how Otherness has been imagined and depicted in Nordic and
European literature. Through questioning the underlying assumptions in European literature, we explore
the processes of constructing and representing the Other in terms of gender, culture, ethnicity, social class,
sexual orientation, religion, and nationality. The course is divided into four different parts: 1) Postcolonial
Perspectives; 2) Female Writers, Feminism, and Exotism; 3) Woman as Other, and the Question of Gender; and
4) Multiculturalism in the Metropolis. The course also includes a Field Study to Gothenburg and a long Study
Tour to London/Oxford.
Learning objectives of the course: By the end of this course you will have developed skills enabling you to: 1)
analyze the underlying ideological and cultural assumptions in works of literature;2) understand the historical
and political contexts of literature; 3) identify siginificant narrative and figurative literary strategies; 3)
navigate though challenging theoretical texts; 4) improve your own writing and textual analysis; 5) develop
your own critical voice.
Required texts:
Novels, Short Stories, Travelogues
Blixen, Karen, ”The Roads Round Pisa”
Brontë, Charlotte, Jane Eyre
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness
Duras, Marguerite, The Lover
Eliot, George, Daniel Deronda
Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibiliity on Tour
Flaubert, Gustave, Salammbô
Hoffmann, E. T. A. ”The Sandman”
Kureishi, Hanif, The Buddha of Suburbia
Naipaul, V. S., ”A New King of the Kongo”
Naipaul, V. S., ”Conrad´s Darkness and Mine”
Rhys, Jean, Wide Sargasso Sea
Selvon, Sam, The Lonely Londoners
Smith, Zadie, NW
Woolf, Virginia, Mrs Dalloway
This syllabus is subject to change.
Imagining the Other in European Literature | DIS | Major Disciplines: Literature
Draft Syllabus
Theoretical Texts
Achebe, Chenua, ”An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad´s Heart of Darkness”
Ball, John, Clement, Imagining London: Postcolonial Fiction and the Transnational Metropolis (excerpts)
Beauvoir, Simone de, The Second Sex (excerpts)
Butler, Judith, Gender Trouble (excerpts)
Carroll, Alicia, ”Arabina Nights, Make-Believe, Exotism and Desire in Daniel Deronda”
Célestine, Roger, From Cannibals to Radicals: Figures and Limits of Exotism (excerpts)
Cixous, Hélène, ”The Laugh of the Medusa”
Freud, Sigmund, ”The Uncanny”
Gilbert and Guber, The Madwoman in the Attic – The Woman Writer in the Nineteenth-Century Literary
Imagination (excerpts)
Haffey, Kate,”Exquisite Moments and the Temporality of the Kiss in Mrs Dalloway and The Hours”
Irigaray, Luce,”The Wedding Between Body and Language”
Kokoli, Alexandra M., The Feminist Uncanny in Theory and Practice
Kuehn, Julia, ”Beyond Orientalism: Exoticising Daniel Deronda”
Leavis, F. R., The Great Tradition (excerpts)
McLeod, Bill, Postcolonial London: Rewriting the Metropolis
Meyer, Susan, ”Safely to Their Own Books: Proto-Zionism, Feminism, and Nationalism in Daniel Deronda”
Miller, Hillis J., ”Should We Read Heart of Darkness?”
Ruddy, Karen, ”The Ambivalence of Colonial Desire in Marguerite Duras The Lover”
Said, Edward, Orientalism
Sedgwick, Eve, Kosofsky, Epistemology of the Closet
Spivak, Gaytari C., ”Three Women´s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism”
Spivak, Gaytari C., ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”
Todorov, Tzvetan, ”Heart of Darkness”
Approach to Teaching: I believe that teaching is a passion. Each session, seminar or lecture is an opportunity
not only to present facts, knowledge, and analytical perspectives, but to engage in dialogue with students on
important literary, ideological, cultural, and existential questions and topics. I always encourage students to
challenge themselves and to engage in critical thinking, whereby preconcieved ideas and one´s own prejudices
are questioned and put into context.
Expectations of the students: Students are expected to have done the reading for each class and to come
prepared with notes and questions for the class to discuss. Engaged participation is part of the evaluation and
grading of the course. It also makes the sessions so much more interesting and versatile. It is vital that the
students engage in an ongoing critical dialogue based on the required texts. Engaged participation is also
extended to include an oral presentation in class. Furthermore, students are expected to develop their writing
abilities and their analytical approach to literature. During the course, students are expected to hand in two
papers, as well as a written exam.
Field studies, practicum and/or study tour: The purpose of the study tour to London and Oxford is to further
expand and develop the fourth part of the course, dealing with Multiculturalism in the Metropolis. By visiting
London, and taking part in its rich colonial and postcolonial history, we will gain a deeper critical understanding
of the current multicultural metropolis. We will visit The National Gallery, Tate Britain, and the British
Museum, and meet with contemporary writers . The tour will also present us with an excellent opportunity to
further study what role the city has played as a representation of modernity and postmodernity within a
This syllabus is subject to change.
Imagining the Other in European Literature | DIS | Major Disciplines: Literature
Draft Syllabus
literary context. After all, London is a key setting not only in Virgina Wool´s groundbreaking novel Mrs
Dalloway, but also in Zadie Smith´s contemporary and much appraised N-W. The purpose of the field study to
Gothenburg is to expand our perspectives on postcolonialism, primarily by visiting The Museum of World
Culture, and meeting with leading scholars within the field.
Evaluation: Students will be evaluated based on overall acquired skills, from demonstrating a basic
understanding of facts and knowledge, over a comprehensive understanding of literary strategies and
theoretical concepts, to a fully developed critical approach to important and complex questions regarding
gender, postcolonialism, and multiculturalism, both in works of literature, and in theoretical works. Students
will be evaluated based on the following: the engaged participation in class, the oral presentation in class, two
written assignments, and the final written exam.
Grading:
Participation 10%
Oral presentation 20%
Paper 1 20%
Paper 2 20%
Written exam 30%
Detailed schedule
Session 1: Introduction: On Human Diversity and the Making of the Other in European Literature
Part 1 Postcolonial Perspectives
Session 2: At Home in Rouen: Orientalism and Exotism Part 1
Reading: Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour (excerpts)
Said, Orientalism (excerpts)
Session 3: At Home in Rouen: Orientalism and Exotism Part 2
Reading: Flaubert, Salammbô (excerpts)
Célestin, From Cannibals to Radicals. Figures and Limits of Exotism (excerpts)
Session 4: The Kongo Part 1: An Existential and Racist Approach to Representation in Literature
Reading: Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Leavis, The Great Tradition (excerpts)
Todorov, ”Heart of Darkness”
Achebe, ”A Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad´s Heart of Darkness”
Said, ”Two Visions in Heart of Darkness”
This syllabus is subject to change.
Imagining the Other in European Literature | DIS | Major Disciplines: Literature
Draft Syllabus
Session 5: The Kongo Part 2: Exile, Centre, and New Encounters
Reading: Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Naipaul, ”A New King of the Kongo”
Naipaul, ”Conrad´s Darkness and Mine”
J Hillis Miller, ”Should We Read Heart of Darkness”
Part 2 Female Writers, Feminism, and Exotism
Session 6: The Female Gothic and the ”Darkest Double” Part 1
Reading: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Guber, Susan, The Madwoman in the Attic – The Woman Writer in the NineteenthCentury Literary Imagination (excerpts)
Session 7: The Female Gothic and the ”Darkest Double” Part 2
Reading: Brontë, Jane Eyre
Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
Spivak, ”Three Women´s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism” (Excerpt)
Spivak, ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”
Session 8: Exoticising Romance Part 1
Reading: Eliot, Daniel Deronda
Kuehn, ”Beyond Orientalism: Exoticising Daniel Deronada”
Carroll, ”´Arabic Nights´, ´Make-Believe´, Exoticm and Desire in Daniel Deronda”
Session 9: Exoticising Romance Part 2
Reading: Eliot, Daniel Deronda
Meyer, ”Safely to Their own Books: Proto-Zionism, Feminism, and Nationalism in Daniel Deronda”
Session 10: Desire, Identity, and Exotism
Reading: Duras, The Lover
Ruddy, ”The Ambivalence of Colonial Desire in Marguerite Duras The Lover”
Part 3 Women as Other, and the Question of Gender
Session 11: The Olimpia Machine
Reading: Hoffmann, ”The Sandman”
Freud, ”The Uncanny”
Kokoli, The Feminist Uncanny in Theory and Practice (excerpts)
Session 12: The Essence of Becoming
Reading: de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
Session 13: ”Écriture Féminine”
Reading: a few literary examples (excerpts)
Irigaray, ”The Wedding Between Body and Language”
Cixous, ”The Laugh of the Medusa”
This syllabus is subject to change.
Imagining the Other in European Literature | DIS | Major Disciplines: Literature
Draft Syllabus
Session 14: Gender Trouble
Reading: Blixen, ”The Roads Round Pisa”
Butler, Gender Trouble (excerpts)
Session 15: Time, Narrative, and the Queer Moment
Reading: Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet (excerpts)
Haffey, ”Exquisite Moments and the Temporality of the Kiss in Mrs Dalloway and The Hours”
Part 4 Multiculturalism in the Metropolis
Session 16 Rewriting the Metropolis Part 1:
Reading: Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
McLeod, Postcolonial London (excerpts)
Ball, Imagining London (excerpts)
Session 17 Rewriting the Metropolis Part 2:
Reading: Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia
Ball, Imagining London (excerpts)
Session 18 Rewriting the Metropolis Part 3:
Reading: Smith, NW
This syllabus is subject to change.
Imagining the Other in European Literature | DIS | Major Disciplines: Literature