Fiction and Espionage (Undergraduate)

The course addresses the modern history of contemporary concerns about secrecy and the surveillance state, terrorism and propaganda. Students will follow a broadly chronological survey from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day that explores how espionage fiction reflects the anxieties of modern society and how these anxieties change historically. The course will consider the relationship of fiction to history, and of 'popular' to 'literary' fiction. Specific issues will include gender, imperialism, technology and the role of political secrecy in everyday life. The course follows these concepts through a sequence of espionage novels. The course will explore espionage fiction both historically and in narrative terms. Questions will include the narrative structure of espionage novels; the role of popular fiction in the construction of ideologies; the relation of political secrecy to empire; gender and the secret world and the role of women in a traditionally male genre; the secret subject defined by ideas about heroism, sexuality, and the body; the relations between literature and surveillance culture; the novel and global communications; the role of technology in espionage. Credit Level: 10 Year taken: Year 4 Undergraduate