(Major Field) India and Ireland in the Colonial World

RATIONALE This major field arises out of my interest in the use of the terms "colonial" or "imperial" as categories of analysis in literary and cultural history in particular. Present-day studies of colonial power relations, economics and discourse construct a history of the colonial and postcolonial world that, by necessity, draws colonial sites into particular kinds of relations with each other—the very designation "colonial" or "postcolonial" carries with it a suggestion of shared transnational experience among colonised sites. It is my intention to investigate the way in which the use of these terms of analysis in cultural theory in particular, though also in historiography, inflects our understanding of the regional and historical specificities of the nineteenth-century. To what extent do the categories of analysis of present-day cultural theory serve to illuminate or obscure the complexities of the relationships between colonial sites? I wish to take a historically and geographically broad view of the evolution of the ideologies and processes of European colonialism. By situating my reading texts that deal with the nineteenth-century experience of colonialism in this broader frame, I wish to gain a deeper insight into how readings of nineteenth-century cultural and literary history impose a coherence, which may or may not be justified, ordered around the experience of colonialism. My investigation of the complex histories of European expansion, informed by texts that were important to that expansion and historical accounts of it, is intended to shed light on the following questions: What does the category of colony used in describing the past offer us in the present day? What impact does it have upon projects to reimagine and realign the historical past in order to affect contemporary understandings of that past? If both British India and Ireland underwent a process of colonisation and, at least partial and fragmented, decolonisation, what does the study of the cultural history of these two sites add to our understanding of these processes? The list is ordered in three categories. The first addresses a broad history of European expansion, both internal and external, before my principal field of study, the nineteenth century. Although I wish this section to be as broad as possible, the wealth of material from the sixteenth century onward and my facility with that period rather than any earlier period have both influenced the selection of materials. The second category narrows the focus to the nineteenth century and largely to British India and Ireland. The final, brief category gestures towards a continuing complexification of our understanding of colonialism and its legacies in the contemporary world.

READINGS EMPIRES AND COLONIES BEFORE THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Gibbon, Edward — The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol I Hakluyt, Richard — The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation Livy — A History of Rome. Books 31-40 Smith, Adam — An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Thucydides — A History of the Peloponnesian War Amin, Samir — Eurocentrism Andrews, K. R., Nicholas Canny and P. E. H. Hair, eds. — The Westward Enterprise: English Activities in Ireland, the Atlantic and America, 1480-1650 Aravamudan, Srinivas — Tropicopolitans: colonialism and agency, 1688-1804 Armitage David — The Ideological Origins of the British Empire Brenner, Robert — Merchants and Revolutions: commercial change, political conflict, and London's overseas traders, 1550-1653 Brewer, John — The Sinews of Power: war, money and the English state, 1688-1783 Canny, Nicholas — "The Origins of Empire" — "The Ideology of English Colonization: from Ireland to America" Chaudhuri, K. N. — Asia before Europe: economy and civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the rise of Islam to 1750 Doyle, Michael — Empires Fuchs, Barbara — Mimesis and Empire: the New World, Islam and European identities Hechter, Michael — Internal Colonialism: the celtic fringe in British national development Pagden, Anthony — Lords of All the World: ideologies of empire in Spain, Britain and France, c.1500-c.1800 Sen, Sudipta — Empire of Free Trade: the East India Company and making of the colonial marketplace Wallerstein, Immanuel — The Modern World System. Vol 2 THE 19TH-CENTURY EMPIRE AND AFTER: BRITISH INVOLVEMENT IN INDIA AND IRELAND Burke, Edmund — "The Impeachment of Warren Hastings" — "Fox's India Bill Speech" — Letters, Speeches and Tracts on Irish Affairs — "Speech on American Taxation" Mill, J. S. — Considerations on Representative Government Bentham, Jeremy — Colonies, Commerce and Constitutional Law Macaulay, Thomas Babbington — Minute on Indian Education Seeley, J. R. — The Expansion of England Arnold, Matthew — Culture and Anarchy Carlyle, Thomas — Reminiscences of my Irish Journey in 1849 Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels — Journalistic and occasional pieces on India and Ireland, collected in On Colonialism (International Publishers) Lenin, V. I. — Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism Barry, Kevin — "Critical Notes on Postcolonial Aesthetics" Cain, P. J. and A. G. Hopkins — British Imperialism: Expansion and Innovation, 1688-1914 Cairns, David and Shaun Richards — Writing Ireland: Colonialism, Nationalism and Culture Chatterjee, Indrani — Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India Chatterjee, Partha — The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories — Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse? Cohn, Bernard S. — Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge: the British in India Deane, Seamus — Celtic Revival: essays in modern Irish literature, 1880-1980 Gibbons, Luke — Transformations in Irish Culture Guha, Ramchandra — This Fissured Land: an ecological history of India Guha, Ranajit — Dominance without Hegemony: history and power in colonial India — A Rule of Property for Bengal: an essay on the idea of permanent settlement — "The Prose of Counter-Insurgency" Kiberd, Declan — Irish Classics Leersen, Joep — Remembrance and Imagination: patterns in the historical and literary representations of Ireland in the nineteenth century Lloyd, David — Anomalous States — "Regarding Ireland in a Postcolonial Frame" Makdisi, Saree — Romantic Imperialism: universal empire and the culture of modernity Metcalf, Thomas — Ideologies of the Raj Mehta, Uday Singh — Liberalism and Empire Said, Edward — Orientalism Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty — "Can the Subaltern Speak?" — "The Burden of English" — A Critique of Postcolonial Reason Viswanathan, Gauri — Masks of Conquest: literary study and British rule in India — Outside the Fold: conversion, modernity and belief POSTCOLONIALISM, GLOBALISATION AND IMPERIALISM Appadurai, Arjun — Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri — Empire Davis, Mike — Late Victorian holocausts: El Nino famines and the making of the third world Sassen, Saskia — Globalization and its Discontents Young, Robert — Postcolonialism