Moodle

In his seminal text, Orientalism (1978), Edward Said examines the construction of the antagonistic and yet interdependent concepts of the ‘Occident’ and the ‘Orient’. In this seminar, we will analyse Western (mis)representations of the ‘Orient’, from the Romantic and Victorian eras through to contemporary Islamophobia and Neo-Orientalism. We will analyse a broad range of media and genres – paintings, poetry, novels, comics, videogames and newspaper articles. Please read Marsh’s novel The Beetle (1897) before the start of the semester; a reader (ca. 80 pages) with short excerpts from other works (see below) will be provided online.

Texts: Richard Marsh, The Beetle (1897).

Excerpts: Edward Said, Orientalism (1978); Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” (1816); Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847); Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899); Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 (2000); Craig Thompson, Habibi (2011); Matthew Vaughn (dir.), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014); Ubisoft, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003); Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed (2007).

This course examines the role media representation plays in defining New Zealand’s national identity. We will analyse short-stories, movies, advertisements, and visual social media in order to discuss the following topics: nation building, national identity, cultural identity, and intercultural relations between European colonizers and their descendants and the Māori people.

Texts: Katherine Mansfield, “The Garden Party”, Frank Sargeson, “The Making of a New Zealander”. Patricia Grace, “A Way of Talking”. Lee Tamahori (dir.), Once Were Warriors, Niki Caro (dir.), Whale Rider. Taika Waititi (dir.), Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

In this course, we will discuss three novels which are set within the Victorian era and which are concerned with "others" at home and abroad: geographically, we will start with Charlotte Brontë in Great Britain, travel up the Congo River with Joseph Conrad, and will finally settle in Queensland, Australia, with David Malouf. Along the way, we will particularly concentrate on analysing the depictions of "racial others", but we will also be interested in examining representations of gender and class.

When discussing excerpts from several film adaptations of Jane Eyre, Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Heart of Darkness, and excerpts from the Australian movie We of the Never Never, we will ask ourselves whether the films succeed in bringing the problem of othering to the viewer's attention, whether they are at all interested in giving a voice to marginalized and silenced characters – or if these films in fact perpetuate othering.

Readings: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. David Malouf, Remembering Babylon. Film adaptations of Jane Eyre (excerpts). Francis Ford Coppola (dir.), Apocalypse Now. Igor Auzins (dir.), We of the Never Never (excerpts).