B4929 - Theories of Empire (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to analyse critically the social, political, and legal discourses which offered a justification for colonial conquest and imperial domination on the global scale in modern European thought. By showing the interconnectedness between liberalism and empire, the course sets out to demonstrate how key notions of modern political thought – such as liberty, property, improvement, and civilization – were instrumental to the practical “success” of the European imperial project. The conceptual lexicon which was employed to describe and support the implementation of the imperial power – the languages of law, government, and sovereignty – will also be presented and discussed. Students will, moreover, become acquainted with the complex matrix of categories of race, class, and gender, which were historically used to govern and discipline the colonized and the (formerly) enslaved in colonial contexts as well as the poor and the labouring classes in the European metropoles.

Course contents

The course aims to introduce students to the spectrum of intellectual discourses and the social, political, and legal legitimations underpinning the European imperial expansion, with a special emphasis on modern Britain and its empire. The course will be divided into five parts of three classes each, with each part featuring two lectures on colonialist ideologies followed by one lecture on radical and anti-imperial thought.

After providing an introduction to the notions of “empire” and “rule of colonial difference”, the first part will discuss the colonialist background and the imperial core of the works of two classic representatives of the contractualist and/or liberal political tradition: Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. It will, moreover, examine some “figures” of resistance against capitalism and empire, including the “many-headed hydra”, “Caliban and the witch”, and the “swinish multitude”.

The second part will be devoted to investigating concepts such as “conquest” and “colonies”, with a special emphasis on Ireland as a “testing ground” for British imperialism and the implementation of ideas of settlement and colonization; select passages from Edward Gibbon Wakefield will be read and discussed. Special attention will subsequently be paid to a seminal critique of these notions: Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism.

The third part will focus on “slavery” and “emancipation” by examining justifications for the enslavement of persons of African origin and critically assessing abolitionist discourses both “from above” and “from below”. It will then analyse a bright historical example of successful anti-slavery resistance - the Haitian Revolution - by retracing its phases and discussing some of its political and constitutional documents.

The fourth part, by mostly relying on the works of John Stuart Mill, will discuss “improvement” as a key concept of the British imperial lexicon and will survey the nineteenth-century British projects for the empire’s afterlife. These projects were predicated on notions including “superstate”, “imperial federation”, and “Anglo-world”. Select passages from Frantz Fanon’s influential anti-imperial work, The Wretched of the Earth, will subsequently be read and discussed.

The fifth part will be devoted to analysing two further rhetorical tools of imperial Britain’s discursive weaponry: “civilization” and “barbarism”. By focusing on two prominent political and legal representatives of the British rule in India, Thomas Babington Macaulay and James Fitzjames Stephen, a connection will be established between these notions and related ones including conquest, improvement, order, and law. The last class with focus on select passages from Karl Marx on colonialism and Edward Said on the Palestinian question.

One of the classes will feature an external invited speaker, who will introduce students to the set of colonialist ideologies supporting the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Italian Empire.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography for students who attend classes:

• Césaire, A., Discourse on Colonialism [1950]. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000
• “Constitution of the French Colony of Saint-Domingue” [1801] and “The Haitian Declaration of Independence” [1804], in L. Dubois and J.D. Garrigus, Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017
• Fanon, F., The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1963, Chap. 1 (“Concerning Violence”) and Conclusion
• Marx, K., “The Future Results of British Rule in India” [1853], in Dispatches for the New York Tribune: Selected Journalism of Karl Marx, ed. by J. Ledbetter. London: Penguin, 2007, pp. 219-225
  
• Mill, J.S., On Liberty [1859], in Collected Works, Vol. XVIII: Essays on Politics and Society, ed. by J.M. Robson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977, Chapter 1 (“Introductory”)
  
• Said, E., The Question of Palestine [1979]. New York: Vintage Books, 1980, Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3

 

Bibliography for students who do not attend classes:

• Hall, S., "The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power", in S. Hall and B. Gieben (eds.), Formations of Modernity. Cambridge: The Open University, 1992, pp. 275-320
• Hind, R.J., “‘We Have No Colonies’: Similarities Within the British Imperial Experience”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 26, 1 (1984), pp. 3-35
• Chakrabarty, D., Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000, Introduction (“The Idea of Provincializing Europe”) and Chapter 1 (“Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History”)
• Guha, R., “The Prose of Counter-Insurgency”, in Subaltern Studies II: Writings on South Asian History and Society, ed. by R. Guha. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983
  
• Robinson, C.J., “Capitalism, Slavery and Bourgeois Historiography”, History Workshop Journal, 23, 1 (1987), pp. 122-140

 

In addition, students who do not attend are expected to read three books from the following list:

• Armitage, D., The Ideological Origins of the British Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000
• Buchan, B., Empire of Political Thought: Indigenous Australians and the Language of Colonial Government, Abingdon: Routledge, 2008
• Daut, M.L., Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2023
• Fitzmaurice, A., Sovereignty, Property and Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014
• Gilroy, P., The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 1995
• Holt, T.C., The Problem of Freedom: Race, Labor, and Politics in Jamaica and Britain, 1832-1938. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991
• Ince, O.U., Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018
• Mehta, U.S., Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999
• Metcalf, T.R., Ideologies of the Raj. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995
• Pagden, A., Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain, and France c.1500-c.1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995
• Pitts, J., A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006

 

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures, close reading of sources, and discussion in class.

Assessment methods

Students who attend at least 75% of classes are considered to be attending the course.

Students who attend classes regularly are expected to pass an oral examination by answering questions aimed at assessing their knowledge of all topics dealt with in class and the readings listed in the “attending students” bibliography section. Regular attendance is important with a view to successfully passing the exam.

Students who do not attend the course or whose attendance is not regular are likewise expected to pass an oral examination by answering questions aimed at assessing their knowledge of the readings listed in the “non-attending students” bibliography section. The reading of the first five essays/chapters is mandatory for all students; each student is also expected to read three books selected from the following list.

For both students who attend and those who do not attend, questions are aimed to appraise their critical thinking, the quality of their exposition, and their ability to trace connections among different texts and topics in order to build their argument. Consistent with the learning goals of the course, correct and proper scientific language and the ability to critically speak about the lectures and/or the readings will result in a good/excellent final grade; acceptable language and the ability to summarize the lectures and/or the readings will result in a sufficient grade; a fragmentary knowledge of the topics of the lectures and/or the readings, inappropriate language, and lack of orientation within the bibliographical materials will lead to a negative assessment, resulting in failure to pass the exam.

Examinations (one per month) will be held in the following months: December 2026 and February, March, April, May, June, July, October, and November 2027. The December 2026 examination is exclusively open to Erasmus/overseas students who need to leave Italy at the end of 2026 or in early 2027. All remaining examinations are open to all students (both those who attend and those who do not attend).

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) can be a useful tool to support individual study with in-depth analysis and self-assessment. Its use for generating summaries of bibliographical materials is not recommended; students are strongly encouraged to read the integral texts. Regarding learning assessment, the use of AI during exams is prohibited. Any use constitutes a violation of academic integrity.

The University policy on the use of AI can be found at the following link: https://www.unibo.it/it/ateneo/statuto-norme-strategie-bilanci/intelligenza-artificiale.

 

Teaching tools

Some reading materials will be available on Virtuale. During frontal lectures, the lecturer will make use of PowerPoint presentations, also available on Virtuale.

Students with learning disorders and/or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the responsible office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students) as soon as possible for them to suggest acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (at least 15 days prior to the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess if adjustments are appropriate, taking into account the learning goals of the course.

Office hours

See the website of Matilde Cazzola