Special Topics in Comparative Literature (488-0-2)
Topic
Postcolonial Theory
Instructors
Lakshmi Padmanabhan
Meeting Info
Annie May Swift Hall 109: Mon 12:00PM - 2:50PM
Overview of class
How do the legacies of slavery and colonization structure the enterprise of critical theory? This course will provide a survey of the work of key thinkers in the field of anti-colonial thought and postcolonial theory, paying particular attention to theoretical debates around the colonial origins of modern subjectivity and the figure of the human, the problem of racial difference, and the attendant questions of aesthetic and political representation. Class readings will include Frantz Fanon, Stuart Hall, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, Achille Mbembe, and Sylvia Wynter. Supplementary readings drawing on Marxist thought, psychoanalysis, and critical race theory will also be assigned.
Assignments include one in-class presentation, two short review papers, and a 10-15 page final assignment.
Registration Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: REASON: Pre-registration is not allowed for this class. Please try again during regular registration.
Add Consent: Instructor Consent Required
Class Materials (Required)
Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism 978-1583670255
Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks 978-0802143006
Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth 978-0802158635
Gayatri Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason 978-0674177642
Edward Said, Orientalism, 978-0394740676
VY Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa, 978-0253204684
Leela Gandhi, Postcolonial Theory, 978-0231178396
Sylvia Wynter, We Must Learn to Sit Together and Talk A Little About Culture,
9781845231088