English Lit after empire: “decolonizing” the curriculum at decolonization

What would a “decolonized” literature curriculum look like, and has one ever existed? This talk locates the contemporary drive to “decolonize” curricula in the historical era of decolonization itself by sketching a conceptual framework for literary “decolonization” rooted in historical campaigns to reform English Literature examinations for 14–18-year-olds in Kenya, Jamaica and Britain. It concludes that calls to “decolonize” curricula have long been contentious – now, and in the past – because they involve writers, teachers and students challenging the political authority of governments as guardians of culture.

Asha Rogers is Associate Professor of Contemporary Postcolonial Literature at the University of Birmingham and the author of State Sponsored Literature: Britain and Cultural Diversity after 1945 (OUP, 2020).