Module Code - Title:
EH6022
-
POT-COLONIAL THEORY AND LITERATURE
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
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:
Methodological and epistemological concerns pertaining to the colonial and postcolonial condition;
Multiple historical and political contexts grounding (primarily) Anglophone and (secondarily) Francophone literature;
Key discourses in the field of postcolonial studies (feminism, marxism, authorship, ecocriticism, modernism, postmodernism, etc);
How to produce theoretically nuanced readings of postcolonial literary texts;
Ways to compare, contrast and combine different theoretical and methodological positions in the field of postcolonial studies.
Syllabus:
This module will function as a critical survey of cultural theories and literary texts that engage postcolonial condition and address political and ethical questions associated with the historical consciousness of postcolonial collective identities; ethnic, religious, political, racial, gendered, and so on. Questions we will be asking in class include the configuration of historical narratives and the issues of representation, truth, accountability, and heritage in South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), North and Southern Africa (Algeria, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa), and the Caribbean (Antigua and Jamaica). We will conclude this module by analyzing how postcolonial literature engages discourses associated with the era of globalization, human rights, humanitarian intervention and so on.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
To recognize the key theorists and writers in the field.
To identify several important literary and theoretical debates pertaining to the postcolonial condition.
To build conceptual and analytical bridges across disciplines so as to synthesize otherwise disparate ideas.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
To analyze in depth literary themes in postcolonial literature.
To formulate critical responses to the literary analysis of others.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
The module will be taught by lecture, seminar discussion and by research-based critical material. Students will learn by listening to and engaging with lectures, reading primary and secondary sources (both assigned and recommended). As this is postgraduate module, a significant proportion of the workload involves self-directed research, which will be graded by continuous assessment.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Aimé Césaire (2001)
Discourse on Colonialism
, Monthly Review Press
Frantz Fanon (2005)
The Wretched of the Earth
, Grove Press
Bessie Head (1987)
A Question of Power
, Heinemann
Antjie Krog (2000)
Country of my Skull
, Three Rivers Press
Michael Ondaatje (2001)
Anil¿s Ghost
, Vintage
Bhikhu Parekh (2001)
Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction
, Oxford University Press
Arundhati Roy (2008)
The God of Small Things
, Random House
Rushdie, S. (1985)
Midnights Children.
, New York: Random House
Wicomb, Z. (2001)
Davids Story
, New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY.
Guha, G. (2003)
History at the Limit of World History
, New York: Columbia University Press.
Other Relevant Texts:
Ahmad, Aijaz (1992)
In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures
, London: Verso
Ashcroft, William D., Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin, eds. (1995)
The Post-Colonial Studies Reader
, London: Routledge
Bhabha, Homi K (1996)
Locations of Culture: Discussing Post-Colonial Culture
, London: Routledge
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (1999)
A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present
, Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP
Appiah, Kwame Anthony (1992)
In My Fathers House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture
, London: Methuen
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Spring
Module Leader:
Yianna.Liatsos@ul.ie