130199 PS Social History of Lit. (PS): Introduction to Postcolonial Literature and Theory (2014W)
Continuous assessment of course work
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Registration/Deregistration
Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
- Registration is open from Mo 01.09.2014 11:00 to We 24.09.2014 23:59
- Deregistration possible until Fr 31.10.2014 23:59
Details
max. 40 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
- Tuesday 07.10. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 14.10. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 21.10. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 28.10. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 04.11. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 11.11. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 18.11. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 25.11. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 02.12. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 09.12. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 16.12. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 13.01. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 20.01. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
- Tuesday 27.01. 12:30 - 14:00 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Postcolonial theory, which developed in the 1980s, is today one of the most productive analytical tools for the study of culture. Rather than being an abstract theory, it is a dynamic discourse that emerged from the cultural and social experience of the colonial and postcolonial citizen. Through a close reading of literary texts, the course will study colonial discourse as a textual enterprise of domination and postcolonial discourse as a form of resistance against the Eurocentric assumptions of English literature and culture and as a way of redefining the postcolonial self and the world. The reading selection covers the most representative English-language postcolonial authors from Africa, East Asia, the Caribbean, United States and Britain, focusing mainly on short fiction and non-fiction. Literary texts will be used as the basis for the explication of key terms of postcolonial theory such as "anti-colonial resistance", "hybridity", "otherness" and "mimicry". The texts are roughly chronologically subdivided into eleven main topics: imperial (colonial) writing, anti-colonial discourses, theorizations of race and language, the postcolonial self, postcolonial historical revisionism, national constructions, gender and the postcolonial nation, postcolonialism and globalization, migrancy and displacement, and transcultural writing.
Assessment and permitted materials
Assessment : Participation and homework (20%), oral presentation (20%), argumentative essay, 10-12 pages (60%)
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
identify, analyse and understand the key philosophical, historical, political and aesthetic issues of postcolonial literature
apply close reading skills and critical thinking to a variety of literary texts
reflect critically on the relations between primary texts and relevant secondary texts
discriminate between ideas and justify personal positions
produce well-structured, relevant arguments with an appropriate intellectual framework
apply close reading skills and critical thinking to a variety of literary texts
reflect critically on the relations between primary texts and relevant secondary texts
discriminate between ideas and justify personal positions
produce well-structured, relevant arguments with an appropriate intellectual framework
Examination topics
Reading list
SECONDARY SOURCES:
Ashcroft, Bill et. al., The Empire Writes Back. Routledge, 1989, 2002.
Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Oxford University Press, 1995.
McLeod, John. Beginning Postcolonialism. Manchester University Press, 2000.
Doring, Tobias. Postcolonial Literatures in English. Stuttgart: Klett Lernen und Wissen, 2008.PRIMARY SOURCES:
BLOCK 1: COLONIALISM AND ANTI-COLONIALISM
Week 1 Introduction
Mrs. Ernest Ames, ABC for Baby Patriots (1898)
Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines (1885)
Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man’s Burden" (1899)Week 2 Reading colonial discourses
John Ruskin, Conclusion to the Inaugural Lecture (1870)
Anthony Trollope, Aboriginals (1873)
McLeod, Chapter 1 and 2Week 3 Reading anti-colonial discourses
George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant" (1936)
Doris Lessing, "The Old Chief Mshlanga" (1951)Week 4 Theorizing race
Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) excerpt
George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin (1953) excerpt
Jamaica Kincaid, "Blackness" (1983)
Dambudzo Marechera, "Black Skin What Mask" (1978)BLOCK 2: POSTCOLONIALISMWeek 5 Re-writing the self: postcolonial autobiographical writing
Camara Laye, The Dark Child (1954) - excerpt
Jean Rhys, "The Day They Burnt the Books" (1960)Week 6 Re-writing history: postcolonial fiction as nationalist narrative
Raja Rao, The Cow of the Barricades and Other Stories (1947)
R.K. Narayan, "The Roman Image" (1942)
Sam Selvon, "The Cricket Match" (1957)
McLeod, Chapter 3Week 7 Theorizing language
Chinua Achebe, "The African Writer and the English Language" (1962)
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, "The Language in African Literature" (1986)
Raja Rao, Foreword, Kanthapura (1938)
Edward Kamau Brathwaite, History of the Voice (1984) excerpt
Ashcroft et. al., Chapter 2Week 8 Re-writing her story: the postcolonial nation and gender
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (1988) excerpt
McLeod, Chapter6Week 9 Re-writing whiteness: postcolonial white writing from Africa
Daniel Bristow-Bovey, "The First Time I Said Fuck" (2008)
Alexandra Fuller, "Fancy Dress" (2003)BLOCK 3: GLOBALIZATION AND TRANS-CULTURATIONWeek 10 Re-writing the world: postcolonial writing from the Caribbean
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (1988)
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (1956) excerptWeek 11 Re-writing cultural identity: postcolonial writing from East Asia
Bharati Mukherjee, "A Wife’s Story" (1988)
Bapsi Sidhwa, "Serahbai's Story" (2004)
McLeod, Chapter 7Week 12 Migrancy and displacement: postcolonial writing from Africa
E.C. Osondu, "Waiting" (2009)
Parselelo Kantai, "You Wreck Her" (2009)
McLeod, Chapter 7Week 13 Postcolonial writing from the United States
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
Ashcroft et al., Chapter 6Week 14 Postcolonial hybridity: trans-cultural writing
Salman Rushdie, East, West (1994)
Hanif Kureishi, Collected Short Stories (2011)
Ashcroft, Bill et. al., The Empire Writes Back. Routledge, 1989, 2002.
Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Oxford University Press, 1995.
McLeod, John. Beginning Postcolonialism. Manchester University Press, 2000.
Doring, Tobias. Postcolonial Literatures in English. Stuttgart: Klett Lernen und Wissen, 2008.PRIMARY SOURCES:
BLOCK 1: COLONIALISM AND ANTI-COLONIALISM
Week 1 Introduction
Mrs. Ernest Ames, ABC for Baby Patriots (1898)
Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines (1885)
Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man’s Burden" (1899)Week 2 Reading colonial discourses
John Ruskin, Conclusion to the Inaugural Lecture (1870)
Anthony Trollope, Aboriginals (1873)
McLeod, Chapter 1 and 2Week 3 Reading anti-colonial discourses
George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant" (1936)
Doris Lessing, "The Old Chief Mshlanga" (1951)Week 4 Theorizing race
Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) excerpt
George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin (1953) excerpt
Jamaica Kincaid, "Blackness" (1983)
Dambudzo Marechera, "Black Skin What Mask" (1978)BLOCK 2: POSTCOLONIALISMWeek 5 Re-writing the self: postcolonial autobiographical writing
Camara Laye, The Dark Child (1954) - excerpt
Jean Rhys, "The Day They Burnt the Books" (1960)Week 6 Re-writing history: postcolonial fiction as nationalist narrative
Raja Rao, The Cow of the Barricades and Other Stories (1947)
R.K. Narayan, "The Roman Image" (1942)
Sam Selvon, "The Cricket Match" (1957)
McLeod, Chapter 3Week 7 Theorizing language
Chinua Achebe, "The African Writer and the English Language" (1962)
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, "The Language in African Literature" (1986)
Raja Rao, Foreword, Kanthapura (1938)
Edward Kamau Brathwaite, History of the Voice (1984) excerpt
Ashcroft et. al., Chapter 2Week 8 Re-writing her story: the postcolonial nation and gender
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (1988) excerpt
McLeod, Chapter6Week 9 Re-writing whiteness: postcolonial white writing from Africa
Daniel Bristow-Bovey, "The First Time I Said Fuck" (2008)
Alexandra Fuller, "Fancy Dress" (2003)BLOCK 3: GLOBALIZATION AND TRANS-CULTURATIONWeek 10 Re-writing the world: postcolonial writing from the Caribbean
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (1988)
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (1956) excerptWeek 11 Re-writing cultural identity: postcolonial writing from East Asia
Bharati Mukherjee, "A Wife’s Story" (1988)
Bapsi Sidhwa, "Serahbai's Story" (2004)
McLeod, Chapter 7Week 12 Migrancy and displacement: postcolonial writing from Africa
E.C. Osondu, "Waiting" (2009)
Parselelo Kantai, "You Wreck Her" (2009)
McLeod, Chapter 7Week 13 Postcolonial writing from the United States
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
Ashcroft et al., Chapter 6Week 14 Postcolonial hybridity: trans-cultural writing
Salman Rushdie, East, West (1994)
Hanif Kureishi, Collected Short Stories (2011)
Association in the course directory
BA M5
Last modified: Th 04.07.2024 00:13