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In this seminar we will deal with the earliest written testimonies of Black British writers such as Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince. Students will be familiarised with the specific British history of the transatlantic slave trade and the African diaspora in Britain. In a second step we will interrogate so-called neo-slave narratives such as Caryl Phillips’ Cambridge, Andrea Levy’s The Long Song and Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black. How is literature employed in the late eighteenth century to construct new subject positions and how is Britishness shaped in relation to the legacy of slavery in contemporary (postmodern) novels? In addition to the literary texts, we will also address commemorative practices in museums etc. regarding the 2007 bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade.
A digital reader on Moodle with relevant material as well as the list of primary texts to be acquired will be provided at the beginning of the course. It is strongly recommended to read The Interesting Narrative (please use a critical edition such as Penguin Classics) before the new semester starts.
- Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings. 1789. Ed. Vincent Carretta. London: Penguin, 2003.
- Prince, Mary. The History of Mary Prince. A West Indian Slave. Ed. Sara Salih. London: Penguin, 2004.
- Phillips, Caryl. Cambridge. London: Vintage, 2008.
- Levy, Andrea. The Long Song. London: Headline Review, 2011.
- Edugyan, Esi. Washington Black. New York: Harper Collins, 2018.
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