Culture and Imperialism

Since the time of Said’s writing in the early 1990s, how has the canon of literature changed? How has it remained the same? Is the canon more representative of writers that are not “Western” or “European” or from dominant majorities in different societies? What is the function of the canon, and why is it significant to readers and scholars?

How does the “civilizing mission” support the project of imperialism? What are the assumptions that lie beneath the idea of the “civilizing mission”?

How does colonialism impact the metropolitan centers, such as London and Paris, versus how it impacts the margins, such as India or Algeria? What do the metropolitan centers have to gain from colonialism, as opposed to the natives in colonized areas, and vice versa?