No Dead White Men: One of the clichés about English literature is that it is the study of dead white men; therefore, this section of ENGL 334 is breaking that stereotype by focusing exclusively on the fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and cinema written by British women, enslaved persons, and colonized BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) from the end of the eighteenth century through the present day. The literature that was published by these authors tends to be less solipsistic, less interested in the solitary genius and more invested in ameliorating present cruelties by building relationships with their communities – emotionally, politically, didactically, polemically. We are going to read and respond to these traditionally under-represented persons’ takes on human rights, reform, abolition of slave trade, gender roles, war, imperialism, post-colonialism, literature, education, childhood, technological developments, and more.

Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Men