Course Description
Literatures from a selection of the following postcolonial regions: Africa, South Asia, Canada, the Caribbean, New Zealand, and Australia. Genres should include poetry, prose, drama, and/or film. Introduction to central concerns of postcolonial writers, such as decolonization and national identity, identifies differences among postcolonial regions.
Athena Title
Postcolonial Literature
Prerequisite
Two 2000-level ENGL courses or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 3000-level ENGL course) or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 2000-level CMLT course)
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course aims to introduce students to a wide range of texts by writers who have responded to colonialism and globalization. It aims to equip students with a broad range of theoretical and critical tools with which to approach the study of postcolonial literatures. By the end of the course, students, having read a substantial body of literature, will be able to discuss these texts (both orally and in writing) by engaging in key areas of debate, such as race, gender, ethnicity, and nationhood.
Topical Outline
The choice and sequence of topics will vary from instructor to instructor and semester to semester. The literature will be read outside of class and discussed in class, examined individually and comparatively in the context of the times and the circumstances of their composition. Periodically during the semester, students will perform a number of graded tasks, including some combination of tests and out-of-class papers. A possible series of topics might resemble this: Colonialism; resistance; decolonization; neo-colonialism; orality and literacy; genre; colonial education; mimicry; hybridity; modernity; magic and myth; pre-colonial history; geography and mapping; landscape; gender; nationalism; generations; race; ethnicity; caste; class; citizenship; diaspora; globalization; slavery; country and city; disability; orientalism; language; religion; aesthetics and politics; postmodernism; magic realism. Texts might include works by: J.M. Coetzee; Nadine Gordimer; Chinua Achebe; V.S. Naipaul; Jamaica Kincaid; Keri Hulme; Janet Frame; Zakes Mda; Derek Walcott; Dionne Brand; Ngugi wa Thiong'o; Tsitsi Dangarembga; Athol Fugard; Michelle Cliff; Amitav Ghosh; Nazruddin Farah; Arundhati Roy; Buchi Emecheta; Ama Ata Aidoo; Bessie Head; Wole Soyinka; R.K. Narayan; Salaman Rushdie; David Malouf; Raja Rao; Louise Bennett; Patrick White; Naguib Mahfouz; Njabulo Ndebele; Dambudzo Marechera; George Lamming; Kamau Brathwaite; Grace Nichols; Mudrooroo Narogin; Witi Ihimaera; Sam Selvon; Michael Ondaatje; Zadie Smith; Ken Saro-Wiwa; Ben Okri; Zoe Wicomb; Anita Desai; Sara Suleri; Amos Tutuola; Rohinton Mistry; Peter Carey; Jean Rhys; Caryl Phillips; Tayeb Salih; Alan Duff; Shirley Geok-Lin Lim; Hanif Kureishi; Earl Lovelace; Mariama Ba; Camara Laye; Shani Mootoo.