Universität Wien

140565 SE Gender and Postcolonial Critique (2010S)

Continuous assessment of course work

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).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 15.04. 18:00 - 19:30 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 14.05. 09:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Saturday 15.05. 09:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Saturday 12.06. 09:00 - 15:00 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 2 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-06
  • Sunday 13.06. 09:00 - 15:00 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 2 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-06

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Postcolonial critique is a set of diverse and interconnected theoretical approaches. It seeks to uncover exclusionary structures, identify moments and spaces of agency and resistance, and to contextualize the production of knowledge and power structures in and beyond colonial and imperial endeavors. With a keen awareness for history and geography and a substantial interest in subjectivity and agency, postcolonial perspectives compliment gender studies and feminist approaches. Both postcolonial and feminist scholarship share a vested interest in analyzing overlapping and interconnected forms of oppression (e.g. race-class-gender) and in dismantling exclusionary and discriminatory practices and structures. Feminist perspectives within postcolonial critique (and vice versa) offer ways of articulating the complexities and challenging Eurocentric, colonial and imperialist practices and theories, stories and perspectives linked to domination, exploitation, invisibility, exclusion and violence. Both postcolonial critique and feminist analysis focus on subjectivity rather than on people as "objects of analysis". This approach opens up space for contemplating practices of emancipation, resistance, liberation, subversion, refusal etc. and gives rise to new, alternative perspectives capable of uncovering differences and rendering them productive. This course will present English-language texts from postcolonial critique that seek to question gender norms and practices with a central focus on contextualization, rewriting histories, agency and resistance. These transdisciplinary texts will serve as a basis for discussing methods of applying gender-specific, feminist and postcolonial critique to the course participants' current research interests.

Assessment and permitted materials

Preparation of reading assignments in working groups and active
participation in class discussions (50%), in-class presentation (25%), final paper (25%)

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The aims of this course are (1) to develop an awareness / a language for discussing critical projects that combine feminist and postcolonial perspectives, (2) to work out ways of integrating gender and postcolonial approaches into one's own reading and research practice (3) to build critical and analytical faculties and (4) refine presentation and discussion skills in English.

Examination topics

Lectures, presentations, working and discussion groups, class discussion, written assignment

Reading list

Course reading includes:

Ahmed, Sara. "Feminist Attachments." The Cultural Politics of Emotion. NY: Routledge, 2004, pp. 168-190

Brah, Avtar. "Diaspora, Border and Transnational Identities." [1996] Lewis, Reina and Sara Mills (eds.) Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003, pp. 613-634

Chari, Hema. "Colonial Fantasies and Postcolonial Identities. Elaboration of Postcolonial Masculinity and Homoerotic Desire." Hawley, John C. (ed.) Postcolonial, Queer. Theoretical Intersections. New York: State University of New York Press, 2001, pp. 277-304

Fusco, Coco. "The Other History of Intercultural Performance." Jones, Amelia (ed.) The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. NY/London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 205-217

McClintock, Anne. "Introduction. Postcolonialism and the Angel of Progress." & "Postscript: Angel of Progress." Imperial Leather. Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest. NY/London: Routledge, 1995, pp. 1-17 & 392-396

Minh-ha Trinh Thi. "Difference: 'A Special Third World Women Issue'" Woman, Native, Other. Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989, pp. 1-2 & pp. 80-116

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses." boundary 2, Vol. 12, No. 3, On Humanism and the University I: The Discourse of Humanism. (Spring - Autumn, 1984), pp. 333-358

Moreton-Robinson, Aileen and Fiona Nicoll. "We Shall Fight Them on the Beaches: Protesting Cultures of White Possession." Journal of Australian Studies, 1835-6419, Volume 30, Issue 89, 2006, pp. 149-160

Oyĕwùmí, Oyèrónké. "Visualizing the Body: Western Theories and African Subjects." ibid (ed.) African Gender Studies. A Reader. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 1-21

Sandoval, Chela. "Dissident Globalizations, Emancipatory Methods, Social-Erotics." Cruz-Malavé, Arnaldo and Martin F. Manalansan IV (eds.) Queer Globalizations. Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism. New York/London: New York University Press, 2002, pp. 20-32

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty and Suzana Milevska. "Resistance that cannot be recognized as such: A conversation between Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Suzana Milevska." Gr¿inić, Marina and Rosa Reitsamer (eds.) New Feminism. Worlds of Feminism, Queer and Networking Conditions. Vienna: Löcker Verlag, 2008, pp. 277-289

Suleri, Sara. "Woman Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition." Mongia, Padmini (ed.) Contemporary Postcolonial Theory. NY/London: Arnold, 1996, pp. 335-346

Yeğenoğlu, Meyda. "'Veiled Fantasies: Cultural and Sexual Difference in the Discourse of Orientalism.'" [1998] Lewis, Reina and Sara Mills (eds.) Feminist Postcolonial Theory: a Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003, pp. 542-566

The reader is available at Facultas am Campus;
additional texts can be found in the course folder ("Handapparat IE") in the International Development study program office


Association in the course directory

T IV

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:35