Villains or Victims White Women and the British Empire, c.1840-1980

Code

HIST2051

School

History

Level

2

Credits

20

Semesters

Spring UK

Summary

White women cut an ambivalent figure in the history of the British Empire. They tend to be remembered as malicious harridans personifying the worst excesses of colonialism, as vacuous fusspots, whose lives were punctuated by frivolous pastimes, or as casualties of patriarchy, constrained by male actions and gendered ideologies. As this course shows, however, the reality of the situation was much more intricate and complex. Taking inspiration from academic literature that has proliferated in the last thirty years or so, Villains or Victims? draws upon case studies from Britain, Canada, India, Australia and southern Africa to examine the lived reality of being a white woman in a colonial setting. Utilising the histories of white women as a prism through which to understood broader issues relating to religion, gender, race, class, domesticity, sexuality and suffrage, this course will also expose students to a range of primary source materials, including diaries, letters, novels and memoirs.

Core topics will include:
Women and Empire: Debates and Perspectives
Turning Pioneers into Settlers: Constructing the Female Emigran
Madam and Memsahib: The Women of the Raj
Saving Souls: Female Missionaries
Deviance and Desire: Colonial Prostitution
The Politics of Pots and Pans: Domesticity and Colonialism
Colonising the Body: Health, Hygiene and Nurses
Education and Improvement: Colonial Classrooms
Struggles within THE struggles: Women and Decolonisation
Imperial Aftershock: Whiteness at the end of Empire

Target Students

Only available to level 2 single or joint honours History students, Liberal Arts students or Exchange students hosted by the Department of History.

Classes

• One 1-hour seminar each week for 10 weeks
• One 2-hour lecture each week for 10 weeks

Assessment

• 50% Coursework 1: 2500 word individually assessed coursework item
• 50% Coursework 2: 2500 word individually assessed coursework item

Assessed by end of spring semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

a. Knowledge and understanding of:
* the relationship between gender and imperialism
* the motives, ideologies and objectives of various social, cultural and political actors and
interests during the history of the late British empire

b. Intellectual skills. By the end of the module students will be able to:
* think critically and imaginatively about ‘new’ imperial histories.
* read and evaluate critically primary source documents
* assess and evaluate competing historical explanations put forward in the literature
* construct coherent and independent arguments on the subject matter

c. Professional/practical skills. The module will develop students’ ability to:
* analyse information and arguments from a range of primary and secondary sources
* provide appropriate footnotes and a bibliography in their essays
* use IT to complete written assignments, and use the university Intranet to access the library
catalogue

d. Transferable skills: The module will also develop the students’ ability to:
* manage large, incomplete and disparate bodies of knowledge
* develop oral and written communication skills
* work with other students on the module in researching primary and secondary sources
* take responsibility for their own learning
* improve IT skills in word processing
 

Conveners

• Dr Kate Law