Introductory description

EN938-30 Theory from the Margins: Postcolonialism and the Radical Tradition

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Part One of the course will require reading M.K. Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj (1910), in which Gandhi offers a radical critique of Western civilization and lays out many of his ideas that were to shape his later political projects of struggle. This text will be read in tandem with an undelivered speech of one of Gandhi’s most significant antagonists B.R. Ambedkar’s The Annihilation of Caste (1936). Supplementary readings by Arundhati Roy, Mahasweta Devi and others will allow us to discuss how radical critiques of the nation, nationalism and modernity have shaped subsequent theorizations of postcolonial studies. Part Two will focus on a range of African texts: chiefly, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961) and Aye Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. These texts examine the role of national culture within the project of decolonization, as well as the pitfalls of national consciousness in the context of neo-colonialism. These key texts will open up discussions about nationalism, culture and class struggle and their particular incorporation into late 20th century academic theorizations. Part Three will focus on the Haitian Revolution, and will examine selections from C.L.R. James’s The Black Jacobins (1938), an influential account of the Haitian revolution written in the context of early twentieth century anti-imperialist movements. The text will provide us with an opening to discuss contemporary movements against racism and imperialism and the resources that postcolonial theory can provide us.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a broad understanding of and a stake or investment in key conceptual, theoretical and methodological debates in the postcolonial studies field
• Situate these debates institutionally, by thinking about them in relation to developments in academic work in fields and disciplines (e.g. history, anthropology, philosophy) that abut and influence postcolonial literary studies
• To contextualise the emergence and defining trajectories of postcolonial literary studies relative to wider social, political and intellectual developments – from the ‘Bandung’ era to the end of the Cold War to ‘9/11’ and the invasion of Iraq

Subject specific skills

This module is designed to offer an introduction to advanced study in the field of postcolonial literary studies. Assuming some familiarity (however limited) with some of the best-known works in the ‘postcolonial’ literary corpus (e.g., Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children or Edward W. Said’s critical writings).
Students will examine the emergence, institutionalization, and challenges posed to postcolonial theory through a set of key fictional, historical, and political texts, ranging from the late nineteenth century to the present. This module will consider the academic disciplinarization of postcolonial studies in the Anglo-American academy from the 1980s onwards, occurring in the context of economic and cultural globalization and a new American imperialism, and also focus on a range of influential texts written in earlier decades, and examine the ways in which they have shaped a host of contemporary academic debates about postcoloniality.

Transferable skills

No transferable skills defined for this module.