HENB01354U English - Elective 1, topic 4: Migration and Social change: Britain 1800-2000

The figure of the migrant is multi-layered, elusive, and always in dispute. This course is an investigation into how our image of the migrant has evolved historically, how past versions have contributed to what we see today, and, by contrast, how the migrant has sought to portray her or himself. The context for this discussion is primarily Britain in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, but we will also go back to the 18^th century, forward to the 21^st, and we will make comparisons with related images of the migrant, particularly between New York and London. Source materials for analysis will vary, but include etchings, drawings, photographs, film and digital media, as well as written ‘personal documents’ that illuminate some of the ways the migrant has been both identified and treated as an alien.

Historically, migrant voices have developed from relative anonymity, through degrees of novelty and notoriety, towards a tension between victimhood and agency. Our task is to distinguish between the ways migrants are understood, interpreted and often constrained by others, and the ways in which migrants express their own experiences.