Jane Eyre: Postcolonial Readings of Race and Gender - Einzelansicht

Published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography in 1847, Charlotte Brontë's novel has been dissected by postcolonial critics for a very long time for its portrayal of Bertha Mason and for the way that characters have spoken about missionary work in India. In this class, we will be touching upon the gothic setting of the novel and its use of mystery as being important to the characterisation of the "mad woman in the attic" who also happens to be from the Caribbean. The larger aim of the class would be to read the gothic genre into the novel's setting and contextualising it within the socio-political context of English colonialism.

Throughout the semester, students will be expected to be read Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys' seminal 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys' novel will provide us the wider context of the novel and students will be required to read portions of the two novels regularly for class.

The two novels and other material will be provided on Moodle. Please write me at priyam.goswami.choudhury@uni-potsdam.de for questions and queries. 

Please feel free to read Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea before the start of the semester. From the beginning of the teaching period, both texts will be available on Moodle.

For full credits, students will have to write a short essay (1000 words) midway through semester. For 3 ECTS, students will be expected to write a short essay of at least 1500 words. For 6 ECTS, students will be expected to write a long paper of at least 3000 words.