You will begin this module by juxtaposing pro- and anti-slavery texts written between the 1760s (when the transatlantic slave trade was at its height) and the 1790s. You will then examine the utopian vision of the Jamaican sugar-plantation and how that vision is brought into question. In subsequent weeks, you will explore a range of generically diverse postcolonial texts, all of which revisit and reimagine the institution of slavery from different perspectives and positions. As well as drawing out the thematic concerns of these works, you will analyse their formal aspects, including, for example, the use of counter-discourse, polyphony, intertextuality and tone.

• discuss a wide range of texts about the institution of slavery in the British Caribbean and identify the ways in which the representation of that institution has shifted over time
• analyse the principal thematic concerns and formal features of the texts from historically and critically informed perspectives
• apply high-level critical skills of close analysis to literary and visual productions
• synthesise complex materials and ideas clearly, cogently and with purpose
• evaluate the differences, similarities and connections between the works studied

The module will be delivered through a mix of large group and small group sessions, including, where relevant, asynchronous materials such as lecture recordings. Full details on the delivery mode of this module will be available on Learning Central at the start of the academic year – and may be, in part, determined by Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance.

Academic skills: the particular skills of this module entail understanding the way in which the representation of British Caribbean slavery has developed from the era of slavery itself to the present, with the emphasis placed on a practice of close reading informed by historical awareness and recent critical debates in the field of slavery studies. This requires careful scholarship, responsiveness to language, form, genre and literary technique and a broad historical awareness of cultural and social change.

Employability skills: these include the ability to synthesise information, participate in group-based discussion, to negotiate different and conflicting standpoints, to communicate ideas and to produce clear, informed arguments in a professional manner. Student-led research will encourage skills of information collation, selection and synthesis.

The methods of summative assessment for this module are detailed in the table below.

Formative work to be submitted before each summative assessment: you can choose between submitting, as appropriate, an essay plan/structure, synopses of essay topic options (if undecided) or sample paragraph/s; for creative assignments, you can submit working drafts of parts of your composition, as arranged with the workshop convenor.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:
As with School policy, failed or unsubmitted assessments can be retaken during the August resit period.

Indicative Syllabus:

• James Grainger, The Sugar-Cane (1764)
• Andrew Burn, ‘A Second Address to the People of Great Britain: Containing a New, and Most Powerful Argument to Abstain from the Use of West India Sugar. By an Eye Witness to the Facts Related’ (1792)
• Matthew Gregory Lewis, Journal of a West India Proprietor (1834)
• Grace Nichols, I is a Long Memoried Woman (1983)
• Caryl Phillips, Cambridge (1991)
• Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger (1992)
• Jackie Kay, The Lamplighter (2007)
• Andrea Levy, The Long Song (2010)

Content warning: please be aware that several of the books/topics discussed in this module deal with difficult themes (including racism and depictions of graphic and sexual violence), which some students may find distressing. If you have any concerns about this, please contact the module leader for advice.