ENGL333-19S2 (C) Semester Two 2019

The Exotic

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 15 July 2019
End Date: Sunday, 10 November 2019
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 26 July 2019
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 27 September 2019

Description

A course addressing the concept of the exotic as a category of taste and feeling through which to explore the politics and history of literatures in English. Exoticism will be considered via four main sub-categories: primitivism, orientalism, the marvellous and the introduced. A range of texts from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries will be studied, deriving from locations as diverse as Britain, Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The idea of the exotic is a paradox. On the one hand it denotes an experience, person, or object that is new and unfamiliar, while on the other hand it makes reference to a very longstanding and familiar category. Somehow, even though the exotic is new to us, we know in advance what to expect from it.

This is because since ancient times all sorts of cultural agents – explorers, politicians, artists, novelists, travel agents, reality-TV producers – have drawn upon the exotic as a stock of images, narratives and meanings that can be deployed when dealing with cultural difference. In times of war, exotic stereotypes portray the enemy as an inhuman brute; in peacetime, exotic places and peoples are idealized, often to critique our own culture, or to sell us a vacation from it. In the arts and in consumer culture, exotic styles and materials go in and out of fashion – this year’s exoticism is next year’s cliché. We might begin to wonder: does the exotic really exist at all? Or is it just a way of looking at something? Are there any circumstances under which we might ourselves be considered exotic?

This course will concentrate on four main sub-categories of the exotic, which are very old but still very prevalent: the oriental, the primitive, the marvelous, and the introduced. By reading literary texts from widely disparate times and places (from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries, from Surinam to Pondicherry) we will seek to understand how exoticism functions as a structure of feeling and a category of taste. By analyzing how the exotic operates politically, culturally and historically, we will engage with some of the most important issues confronted by literary and cultural studies today: the legacies of colonization, decolonization and modernity, the impact of globalization, the implications of the environmental crisis and the collapse of humanism, the politics of cultural difference and economic inequity.

(Image: "Carta Marina" by Olaus Magnus (1539))

Learning Outcomes

  • In this course you will learn:
  • an understanding of, and ability to use, various concepts important to cultural analysis, including exoticism, orientalism, primitivism, magic realism, ecocriticism;
  • improved knowledge of the histories of colonialism, decolonization and globalization as these have occurred in specific contexts;
  • increased understanding of the relationships between taste and cultural politics;
  • acquisition of advanced skills in the analysis of literary and performance texts from a range of cultural and historical locations.
    • University Graduate Attributes

      This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

      Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award

      Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.

      Employable, innovative and enterprising

      Students will develop key skills and attributes sought by employers that can be used in a range of applications.

      Globally aware

      Students will comprehend the influence of global conditions on their discipline and will be competent in engaging with global and multi-cultural contexts.

Prerequisites

15 points of ENGL at 200-level with a B pass, or
30 points of ENGL at 200-level, or
any 45 points at 200-level from the Arts Schedule.

Restrictions

ENGL307, CULT307, CULT333

Equivalent Courses

Course Coordinator

Philip Armstrong

Lecturers

Daniel Bedggood and Sudesh Mishra

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Essay One 30%
Essay Two 30%
Take-Home Test 40%

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts
• Robert Louis Stevenson, South Sea Tales
• Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus
• Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion
• Fiona Farrell, Mr Allbones' Ferrets
• Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Additional readings in short fiction and other material will be provided online.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,523.00

International fee $6,375.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Humanities .

All ENGL333 Occurrences

  • ENGL333-19S2 (C) Semester Two 2019