Studying authors from Conrad and Buchan to Fleming and Le Carre,
this class will trace the emergence of a modern fictional genre
in its literary and historical contexts from late-Victorian
imperialism to the 21st-century surveillance state.
Athena Title
Spy Fiction
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ENGL 3007E
Prerequisite
ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or ENGL 1103 or ENGL 1050H or ENGL 1060H
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will read and/or view and analyze a substantial body of material.
By the end of the semester, students should be able to discuss assigned primary and secondary sources (orally and in writing) with critical sophistication.
By the end of the semester, students should be able to read and enjoy other works in related genres.
By the end of the semester, students should be able to converse with fellow students about texts and issues related to the subject-matter of the course.
Topical Outline
The choice and sequence of topics will vary from instructor to instructor and semester to semester. The topics will consist of selected works by various authors, to be read and/or viewed outside of class and discussed in class, examined individually and comparatively in the context of the times and circumstances of their composition and reception. Because the course will change from semester to semester, students are encouraged to refer to the English department website for information concerning the course content for a specific semester.
Sample list of texts:
H.G. Wells, The Invisible Man
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent
G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands
John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle
Christopher Isherwood, Mr. Norris Changes Trains
Elizabeth Bowen, The Heat of the Day
George Orwell, 1984
Ian Fleming, Casino Royale
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
John Le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity
John Banville, The Untouchables
Film and TV adaptations of Bond, Bourne, Smiley, etc.
MI-5 (Spooks)
The Americans
Homeland
Topics might include: espionage and empire; world war and the Cold War; ideological conflict and nation-states; science and technology; the war on terror; the surveillance state; nationality and identity; sexual self-fashioning; the literary history of spies and spy fiction; spy fiction and other genres (e.g., invasion novels, terrorist fiction, or the detective story; science fiction; utopian literature); spies in literature, film, television, and popular culture.
