ENGL35914 Postcolonial Texts from LTSU on Vimeo.
Year: Final
Part of the year: Full Year
Module Leader: Nicole Thiara / Anna Ball
Assessments:
Keywords:
postcolonial literature; postcolonial theory; identity; resistance; hybridity; globalisation; diaspora
Description:
This third-year module explores the relationship between acts of representation (literature, film and critical / theoretical writing), and the politics of anti-colonialism and postcolonialism. Postcolonial Literature and Postcolonial Theory (sometimes grouped together under the title Postcolonial Studies) are relatively recent areas of study that have emerged in response to socio-political and cultural shifts in the global landscape. Not only do many postcolonial texts seek to represent the traumatic process of anti-colonial struggle that has taken place in many countries throughout the world, but they also consider the political, cultural and psychological legacies of colonialism and ask what it might mean to enter a state of 'post'coloniality. As a result, the act of studying postcolonial texts encourages us to engage with questions of subject-position, difference, culture, identity and representation more broadly. Throughout the course, we will consider the ways in which multiple and intersecting models of difference (ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class and caste) potentially deconstruct as well as construct the central ideas of postcolonialism and of a postcolonial literary canon. The module is structured according to four thematic units: 'Self/Other', 'Resistance', 'Hybridities' and 'The Global'.
Prerequisites: N/A
Useful Information:
Postcolonial Studies; Modern and Contemporary Literature; Culture; Politics
Set texts:
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (London: Penguin Classics, 2006)
Meena Kandasamy, The Gypsy Goddess (Andhra Pradesh: Orient Blackswan, 2010)
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat (London: Penguin Classics, 2002)
Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (London: Penguin, 2013)
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names (London: Vintage, 2014)
Indra Sinha, Animal's People (London: Pocket Books, 2008)
Beside the novels listed above, there are a number of other theoretical essays, critical sources, short stories, poems, extracts and films taught on the module that will be made available to you, primarily in digital form via the Module Resources List on NOW.
Teaching methods/structure:
Lectures with interactive elements; seminars; workshops; independent reading and thinking.
Please view the module specification for the learning outcomes for this module.
Contact details for further queries (module leader):
Email: Nicole.Thiara@ntu.ac.uk
Tel: 0115 848 4765
Office hours in MAE308: http://nicolethiara.youcanbook.me/