THE POST-COLONIAL CONDITION

Catalog description

Students will investigate the post-colonial condition. Emphasis placed on the evaluation of modern colonialism's interaction with a host of differing environs and diverse human communities. The course analyzes the complex self-expressions and identities in this encounter and concentrates on the behaviors and voices arising from the resulting post-colonial condition. Significant time spent on how former colonized peoples claim different forms of belonging amidst the legacy of colonialism, which take on a host of different postures from fatalism to empowerment. The search for belonging and identity will be explored across many forms, to include the economic, cultural, political, and the ideological. Perhaps no form of modern identity has more potential for cooperation and conflict than those sought in former colonial spaces of Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. By understanding these often dislocating behaviors and voices students can critically engage with their own understanding of diversity and identity.