Technologies of Empire looks at the ways in which writers of the long eighteenth century treat writing and imagination as technologies that can produce rather than merely portray empire. Authors ranging from Adam Smith to William Wordsworth consider writing not as part of a larger logic of orientalism that represents non-European subjects and spaces in fixed ways, but as a dynamic technology that organizes these subjects and transforms these spaces. Technologies of Empire reads the imagination as an instrument that works in tandem with writing, expanding and consolidating the networks of empire. Through readings across a variety of genres, ranging from Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France to Maria Edgeworth’s Irish fiction and Wordsworth’s epic poetry, this study offers a new account of writing’s role in empire-building and uncovers a genealogy of the romantic imagination that is shot through by the imperatives of imperialism. 

Technologies of Empire: Writing, Imagination, and the Making of Imperial Networks, 1750-1820

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Loyola Marymount University

Dermot Ryan studied English as an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to complete a Masters in Irish Literature at Queens University, Belfast and a Doctorate in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Dr. Ryan’s teaching interests include horror and other body genres, Irish literature and culture, anti-capitalist and postcolonial theories, youth subcultures, and William Wordsworth. He is currently working on Dark Pastoral, a book-length study of post-sixties survivalist narratives in American fiction and film.  
 
Courses being taught these upcoming semesters:
Fall 2024: On sabbatical
Spring 2025: Irish Literature and Culture (1890-Present); Theory, Power and Rhetoric

Dermot Ryan

Loyola Marymount University

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Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University

The Queen's Univeristy of Belfast

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