English 334 - SEM: SERVANTS IN LIT & FILM

Often invisible but crucial, servants in English literature have served as comic relief, go-betweens, storytellers, sexual targets, and sometimes as central protagonists. But what roles do they play in contemporary literature and film? What can we learn from them about modernity, class, power relations, sexuality, gender, marriage or family? What new responses do they evoke from us? This seminar will consider how writers from various cultures and times call upon the figure of the domestic servant for different purposes, and how a view from (or of) the margins can change how and what we see. Writers include Shakespeare, Samuel Richardson, Emily Bronte, Wilkie Collins, Kazuo Ishiguro, Nadine Gordimer, Aravind Adiga. Films include "Remains of the Day," "Gosford Park," "The Maid," and "Earth." Admission by permission. Enrollment limited to 12.

Instructor Permission. Not open to first-years, sophomores