Module Code - Title:
EH4026
-
COLONIAL/POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
Year Last Offered:
2023/4
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to apply a critical and cogent awareness of
Colonial and postcolonial histories of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Multiple socio-political and cultural contexts associated with Anglophone world literature.
Key literary texts in the field of postcolonial studies from around the world.
A sample of key theoretical debates in the field of postcolonial studies at large (connected to additional theoretical fields such as feminism, ecocriticism, postmodernism, and so on).
Ways to compare, contrast and combine different theoretical and methodological positions in the field of postcolonial studies.
Syllabus:
This module will examine colonial discourse of the British Empire, through a series of colonial and postcolonial literary and theoretical readings. More specifically, we will review the fundamental dichotomies of colonial discourse - master/ slave, center/margins, enlightenment/barbarism, authenticity/ hybridity, secular modernity/ religious conservatism, nation/nativism - and will proceed to read articles and novels from the end of the 19th century, as well as 20th century, from India, Africa and the Caribbean, that both address and attempt to reconfigure the colonial experience from a variety of perspectives.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
To recognize key theoretical and literary texts in the field.
To identify several important literary and theoretical debates in the field of post-colonial studies.
To analyze in depth literary themes in postcolonial literature.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
To build conceptual and analytical bridges across distinct historical and geographical areas of colonial and post-colonial studies
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Achebe, C. (1989)
Arrow of God.
, New York: Anchor.
Adichie, C. (2004)
Purple Hibiscus
, New York: Anchor.
Césaire, A (2001)
Discourse on Colonialism
, New York: Monthly Review Press
Fanon, F. (1969)
Black Skin/White Masks
, New York: Verso
Kipling, R. (2007)
Kim
, New York: Norton Critical Anthology
Rhys, J. (1999)
Wide Sargasso Sea
, New York: Norton Critical Anthology
Rushdie, S. (1985)
Midnight¿s Children
, New York: Penguin
Schreiner, O (2009)
The Story of an African Farm
, Cape Town: Jonathan Ball
Other Relevant Texts:
Boehmer, E. (1995)
Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors
, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
Cheah, Pheng, and Bruce Robbins, eds. (1998)
Cosmopolitics: Thinking and Feeling Beyond the Nation
, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Gandhi, L. (1998)
Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction
, New York: Columbia University Press.
Said, E. (1994)
Culture and Imperialism
, New York: Vintage Books
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader:
Yianna.Liatsos@ul.ie