ENG. 10297 Honors Colloquium
Honors Colloquium
Postcolonial Literature
TR 12:30-1:45, JHN 60

Introduction

This course will introduce you to the postcolonial aspects of global literature. The postcolonial cultural production can be roughly divided into three overlapping phases: the works produced during the contact phase, the native responses to colonialism, and the postcolonial cultural production both from the global periphery and the diasporic authors. Postcolonialism is a dynamic, expansive, and contested field of literary study involving a high degree of multidisciplinarity and theoretical innovation. This course will also introduce you to the early and current debates of the field and possibilities of the field in the future. We will pay special attention to the current state of high capital and neoliberal globalization and the artistic and critical responses being offered in resistance.

We will read these texts of the global periphery not simply as crystallized versions of the cultures that they attempt to represent, but also use them as points of departure into a study of the larger power structures within which these texts are produced. In doing so we will also question our own place and privileged location within the academy and imagine the possibilities of making our work commensurate with the acts of semiotic and material resistance being offered to the reigning power structures by the cultures of the global south.

This course will introduce you to the current global negotiation of power, the articulation of native resistance against the imperatives of globalization, and the native attempts at achieving social justice. In doing so we will also touch upon the role of the nation-state within the current climate of neoliberal globalization and the global war on terror, the politics of the diasporic cultural production, and the possibilities of global popular alliances.

The course is divided over two consecutive semesters: In Fall 2007 we will focus primarily on the theoretical aspects of the course along with some literary texts; the Spring 2008 semester will deal mostly with literary texts using the theoretical knowledge mastered during the fall semester.

Books for Spring 2008.
The Bedford Anthology of World Literature, Vol. 6
Roy, Arundhati. The God of all Small Things.
Edgell, Zee. Time and the River.
Goodman, Robin. World, Class, Women.
 Occasional handouts/Course Reserves. [HO/RES]

Week Four
New Terms: Center/periphery, Colonialism, Imperialism, Third World
Readings:
“In the World.” (BA 97). Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden.” (BA 104), Conrad
“Heart of Darkness” (BA pp. 61, 63, and 83)
Class Discussion: “ In the World.” Kipling. New Terms: Binarism, Othering, Going native
Readings:
Achebe, “An Image of Africa,” (BA 107), Frantz Fanon, “ Black Skin White Masks,” (BA 760) “From Wretched of the Earth” (BA 128).

Week Five
Class Discussion: Achebe and Fanon.
New Terms: Diaspora, Discourse
Readings:
Aime Cesaire, “A Tempest,” (BA 135), Chinweizu, “Decolonizing the . . .” (BA 142).
Class Discussion: Cesaire and Chinweizu.
New Terms: Filiation/Affiliation
Readings:
Senghor, “Negritude,” (BA 884), Ngugi, “Creating Space . . .” (BA 149).

Week Six
Class Discussion: Senghor, Ngugi.
New Terms: Hybridity, Hegemony, Dominance
Readings:
P’bitek (BA 894-898), Head, “The Deep River,” (BA 1205)
Class Discussion: P’bitek, Head.

New Terms: Native, Nativism
Readings:
Mckay (BA 875-76), Gordimer (BA 910).

Week Seven
Class Discussion: Mckay and Gordimer
New Terms: Authenticity, Social Darwinism
Readings:
Edward Said, “From Question of Palestine,” (Handout), Darwish (BA 543-46)
Class Discussion: Said and Darwish
New Terms: Neoliberalism, Cosmopolitanism, Globalization
Readings:
Mahfouz, “Zaabalawi,” (BA 797), Rifaat, “My World of the Unknown,” (BA 1130).

Week Eight
Class Discussion: Mahfouz and Rifaat
New Terms: Subaltern, Appropriation, Abrogation
Readings: Mukherjee,
“A Wife’s Story,” (BA 1316), Hossain, “Sultana’s Dream,” (BA 323).
Class Discussion: Mukherjee, Hossain
New Terms: Agency, Mimicry
Readings:
Narayan, “A Horse and Two Goats,” (BA 785), Rao, “Foreword . . .” (BA 1300), Naipaul, “Our Universal Civilization,” (BA 1313).

Week Nine
Class Discussion:  Narayan, Rao, and Naipaul.
Midterm
New Terms: Magic Realism
Readings:
Marquez, “ A Very Old Man . . .” (BA 924), Fuentes, “The Prisoner of . . .” (BA 938).
Class Discussion: Marquez, Fuentes.
New Terms: Neoimperialism, Militarization, Corporatization.

Week Ten
Class discussion: Marquez and Fuentes.
Readings:
Roy. The God of all Small Things.

Week Eleven and Twelve
Class discussion: Roy
Readings;
Edgell. Time and the River

Week Twelve and Thirteen:
Class discussion: Edgell.

Week Fourteen and Fifteen:
Class discussion: Good man. World, Class, Women.

Week Fifteen
Concluding Discussion.
Final paper workshops.