Postcolonial and Irish Studies Research Group
Postcolonial Irish
The MA in Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures at Manchester is among the most comprehensive and wide-ranging of its kind in the United Kingdom. It is a programme that gives you a great deal of choice about your course of study, while offering you guidance and advice as you make these choices. Among particular strengths not found in other Post-colonial MAs are:
- The study of both colonial and post-colonial writing on our courses (though students can also focus on either if they so wish).
- The opportunity to consider African-American and Irish writing as well as broader theoretical courses covering aspects of gender and sexuality studies.
- In addition to the stress on literature and theory, courses also cover culture, contexts and other media, including film.
- The opportunity to take courses taught by specialists in colonial and post-colonial studies taught in other disciplines such as film, art history and sociology.
- A stress on cutting edge theoretical and conceptual work in post-colonial studies (including work that questions the utility of the term 'post-colonial').
- A core course which offers an in-depth look at colonial discourse and its impact on postcolonial theory.
Researchers working in the area of postcolonial studies are: Dr David Alderson, Dr. Anke Bernau, Dr. Howard Booth, Dr. Liam Harte, Dr. Robert Spencer, Dr. Anastasia Valassopoulos, Dr. Natalie Zacek.
We would welcome applications from students interested in the MA and also prospective PhD students interested in working in the following areas:
- Modernism and empire
- Postcolonial Theory
- Cosmopolitanism
- Popular Culture of the Middle East, including cinema and music and television
- Arab Women Writers
- Feminism in the Arab World
- Contemporary Japanese Women Writers
- Gender and Postcolonial Theory
- Irish literature, including the diaspora
- South Asian writers
- Colonial cities
- Postcolonial middle ages
- Australian Writing
RESEARCH RESOURCES
The John Rylands library holds an excellent selection of critical and theoretical works integral to postcolonial studies as well as numerous specialist journals. In addition to this, the Lenegan Library holds a good selection of world cinema and South Asian films.
More specifically, The John Rylands University Library holds the Carcanet Press Archive. Here, you can find bookfiles and correspondence related to the poetry of, among others, Chinua Achebe, Sujata Bhatt, Mahmoud Darwish, Lorna Goodison, Les Murray, Vikram Seth, Orhan Pamuk, Octavio Paz, Jose Saramago and Ghan Singh.
You can also find invaluable opportunities for archival research in the area of colonial and postcolonial research. Some examples are:
East India Company Papers
India Empire Collection
First editions of Darwin's Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle (1839), The Zoology of the Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle (1839-43) and On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859-66), all in original cloth
Persian Manuscripts between the early 13th century AD and the 19th, and the subject range is wide, including: volumes on the history of India, the Mogul Empire and Indian local history; and works on law, philosophy, medicine, natural history, geography, cosmography, occult science, astronomy and astrology. There are numerous calligraphic and lavishly illustrated texts and decorated bindings.
The collection of Japanese books and manuscripts, assembled by the 25th Earl of Crawford in the 1860s and '70s. Many of the books derived from the collections of some of the most famous japanologists of the 19th century, and a few can be traced back to the collection of Isaac Titsingh, who lived in Japan in the 18th century and who is considered by many to be the founder of modern japanology. The archive includes works on history, biography, poetry, drama, anthropology and topography, with dictionaries, directories of samurai, encyclopedias and maps, in Japanese, Dutch and English. Among them are four volumes of annotated drawings of plants and insects.
Military Papers of Major General Eric Edward Dorman : Date range: 1926-1969. The archive contains correspondence relating to the war in the Western Desert, 1940-1942, and to various works published after the war concerning the Desert Campaigns and other aspects of the Second World War; notably on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Thomas Munro Papers Date range: 1765-1883. Papers of Sir Thomas Munro (1761-1827), who held various posts in the colonial administration of India, served as brigadier-general during the third Maratha War (1817-18) and was appointed Governor of Madras in 1819. The collection includes 19 autograph letters by Munro, printed documents related to Indian affairs of the time, several memoranda, copy letters and extracts, and an autograph note by Lord Roberts concerning Sullivan's son. Munro's letters give detailed accounts of the problems of administration and revenue collection in India and display an intimate knowledge of the country, but they also include detailed descriptions of Munro's military activities in the third Maratha War. The majority of items are dated between 1814 and 1826.
If you have any questions about the MA programme and PhD research in the area of colonial/postcolonial studies, please contact Anastasia Valassopoulos at A.Valassopoulos@manchester.ac.uk.
Irish Studies
The English and American Studies Subject Area is home to a cluster of researchers with an active interest in the literatures and cultures of modern Ireland and Scotland. The cluster, which includes Vona Groake, Dr Liam Harte, Mr John McAuliffe, Dr Daniela Caselli, Dr Anke Bernau and Dr Alan Rawes, welcomes postgraduate students who are interested in pursuing research in the following areas:
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