HST6053 Debating Cultural Imperialism in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire

15 credits, Semester one
Module leader 2024-25: Esme Cleall

Module summary

The nineteenth-century British Empire was ruled through a complex colonial bureaucracy, violent conquest, and exploitative economic relationships. But, arguably the most controversial element of British colonialism was its cultural projects. Missionaries, humanitarians, educationalists and doctors all had their own aspirations for indigenous people and came bearing 'western' and ostensibly very different ways of understanding the mind and the body. This module will introduce you to debates around cultural imperialism in the nineteenth-century British Empire.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of themes, concepts, and approaches relevant to the cultural history of the British Empire and the lively debate about cultural imperialism
Demonstrate a critical awareness of theoretical and historiographical arguments around cultural imperialism and human rights imperialism and their legacies
Demonstrate a sophisticated engagement with case studies of cultural imperialism, such as questions about language; religion; medicine and women's rights
Demonstrate an ability to present your ideas in seminars and contribute to group discussions of interpretive issues
Demonstrate an ability to construct arguments concisely and persuasively through the completion of assessed written work
Demonstrate an awareness of the contribution made by other academic disciplines - cultural studies, political science, postcolonial studies - to the field of colonial history

Assessment methods

Assessment type - % of final mark

3,000 word essay - 100%

You will complete a 3,000 word essay on a topic related to one of the module's key themes. You will define your own essay topic in discussion with your tutor.

Additional learning and teaching information 2024-25

Teaching and indicative seminar plan:

The module will be taught in five, two-hour classes. You will also have individual tutorial contact with the module tutor in order to discuss your assessment for this module.

Indicative seminar plan:

What is ‘Cultural Imperialism’? A concept and an example.
‘Converting the world’: missionary projects in the British Empire
Policing ‘ritual’: indigenous cultures and colonial coercion
‘The eternally oppressed heathen woman’: brown women, white men and imperial feminists
‘Colonising the body’: biomedical bodies and colonial medicine. Plus Conclusions: debating cultural imperialism in a postcolonial world

Selected reading:

David Arnold, Colonising the Body: state medicine and epidemic disease in nineteenth-century India (University of California Press, 1993).
Hilary M. Carey, Empires of Religion (Basingstoke, 2008)
John Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution, Volume I: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa (Chicago, 1991)
Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler (eds), Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World (London, 1997)
Catherine Hall and Sonya Rose (eds), At Home with the Empire: Metropolitan Culture and the Imperial World (Cambridge, 2006)
Catherine Hall, Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830-1867 (Chicago, 2002)
Catherine Hall (ed.), Cultures of Empire: A Reader (Manchester, 2009)
Philippa Levine (ed.), Gender and Empire (Oxford, 2004)
Kenan Malik, The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society (Basingstoke, 1996)
Clare Midgley (ed.), Gender and Imperialism (Manchester, 1998)
Andrew Porter, Religion Versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914 (Manchester, 2004)
Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (London, 1993)
Edward Said, Orientalism (London, 1978)
Sarah Stockwell (ed.), The British Empire: Themes and Perspectives (Oxford, 2008)
Ann Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule (London, 2002)
Ann Laura Stoler, Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault’s History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things (London, 1995)

Additional learning and teaching information 2023-24

Teaching and indicative seminar plan:

The module will be taught in five, two-hour classes. You will also have individual tutorial contact with the module tutor in order to discuss your assessment for this module.

The seminars will explore the texts and issues around specific areas of ‘cultural’ intervention: religion; medicine; violence and what is discussed today as 'women’s rights'.

Selected reading:

David Arnold, Colonising the Body: state medicine and epidemic disease in nineteenth-century India (University of California Press, 1993).
Hilary M. Carey, Empires of Religion (Basingstoke, 2008)
John Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution, Volume I: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa (Chicago, 1991)
Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler (eds), Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World (London, 1997)
Catherine Hall and Sonya Rose (eds), At Home with the Empire: Metropolitan Culture and the Imperial World (Cambridge, 2006)
Catherine Hall, Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830-1867 (Chicago, 2002)
Catherine Hall (ed.), Cultures of Empire: A Reader (Manchester, 2009)
Philippa Levine (ed.), Gender and Empire (Oxford, 2004)
Kenan Malik, The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society (Basingstoke, 1996)
Clare Midgley (ed.), Gender and Imperialism (Manchester, 1998)
Andrew Porter, Religion Versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914 (Manchester, 2004)
Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (London, 1993)
Edward Said, Orientalism (London, 1978)
Sarah Stockwell (ed.), The British Empire: Themes and Perspectives (Oxford, 2008)
Ann Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule (London, 2002)
Ann Laura Stoler, Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault’s History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things (London, 1995)

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