Postcolonial Studies

Catalog description

This course is an introduction to postcolonial literature and theory. Emphasis is on readings produced in the historical, political, and cultural contexts of European colonialism in Africa, India, and the Caribbean. Secondary readings include a range of theoretical writings about post-colonialism as a condition, an interpretive approach, and a field of study. Topics may include nationalism and imperialism; issues of race and gender; migration and diaspora; exile, assimilation, and hybridity; globalization and neocolonialism; strategies of anti-colonial resistance; intersections between post-colonialism and post-modernism; and the politics of language. The course will also interrogate the usefulness of understanding literature in transnational or global terms and consider “postcolonial studies” itself as contested terrain. May be repeated once for credit when topic changes.