Erotic Empires

Catalog description

We interrogate canonical texts of nineteenth- and twentieth-century European literature and travel writing by formulating questions about the erotic dimension of Orientalism. How is sexuality configured in colonial writing? What does this configuration tell us about the ideological map superimposed over the colony and the metropole? How is the historical practice of literary criticism informed by this sexual hierarchy, as in the psychoanalytic tradition of literary interpretation? Why do popular media feature the white colonizer striking up a romance with the brown colonized before “switching sides,” as in Pocahontas or Avatar? Students are introduced to literary criticism by closely reading a diverse collection of theoretical and primary texts that offer a global perspective on the history of European colonization. In so doing, they not only learn how to recognize Orientalist stereotypes but fashion a critical toolkit to unpack the effects of these colonial racisms on some of the most important discursive formations of the twentieth century.