195:307 Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures and Theories



195:307:01 Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures and Theories

Cross-listed with 013:401:03 Advanced Topics in AMESALL

Fall 2011 M5W5 Scott 101, CAC

Professor Janet A. Walker jwalk@rci.rutgers.edu

Office: Scott 238 Office hours: M5W5 or by arrangement

Office phone number: (732)932-7605

My mailbox is in the office of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, located in Scott 330. You may leave papers there during normal business hours.

Comparative Literature website address:

This course fulfills the SAS Global Awareness and Humanities requirements.

It also fulfills several requirements of the Core Curriculum. It fulfills the goals O and P of the Arts and Humanities requirement, which specifies that, upon completion of this section of the Core Curriculum, students will be able to O. Examine critically philosophical and other theoretical issues concerning the nature of reality, human experience, knowledge, value, and/or cultural production; and P. Analyze arts and/or literatures in themselves and in relation to specific histories, values, languages, cultures and technologies. It also fulfills the goals A, B, and D of the SAS Core Curriculum’s 21st-Century Challenges requirement. The latter specifies that, upon completion of this section of the SAS Core Curriculum, students will be able to A. Analyze the degree to which forms of human difference shape a person’s experiences of and perspectives on the world; B. Analyze a contemporary global issue from a multidisciplinary perspective; and D. Analyze issues of social justice across local and global contexts.

The issue of human difference, which is a focus of A in the SAS Core Curriculum’s 21st–Century Challenges requirement, is crucial to this course. Colonial ideology posited the colonized as inherently different from the colonizer, this difference interpreted hierarchically as inferiority, and the colonized actively resisted this self-definition, renegotiating their identity both under colonialism and in the postcolonial era. The course fulfills the B requirement in that it analyzes the contemporary global issue of the legacy of colonialism in several nations using literary, filmic, and theoretical texts. Issues of social justice, which are a focus of D, are also central to the course. While the colonized are denied human rights and social justice by the colonizer under colonialism, in the postcolonial era certain groups are frequently marginalized and denied social justice by formerly colonized nations: for example, tribal people and Dalits (Untouchables) in India. The literary texts and theories read in the course bring these issues to the fore.

Students will be assessed, in the final paper, following guidelines set out by the CRC and the SAS Advisory Committee on Assessment.

Rationale for the course

Postcolonialism may be defined, following Robert Young, as the perspective provided by theories that “analyze the material and epistemological conditions of postcoloniality and seek to combat the continuing, often covert operation of an imperialist system of economic, political and cultural domination.” In this course we will discuss, through the lens of postcolonial theories, major literary and filmic texts that, as John McLeod puts it, have been “produced by people from countries with a history of colonialism, primarily those concerned with the workings and legacy of colonialism, and resistance to it, in either the past or the present.”

Learning Goals of the Instructor

The course aims to develop the student’s capacity to think critically about postcolonial literatures in a comparative framework. Important issues that we will consider are the construction of nation and national culture, the role of language, and concepts of hybridity, gender, and the subaltern in the formation of colonial and postcolonial identities.

By the end of the course students should have arrived at both a definition of postcolonialism and a sense of how it is represented and interrogated in texts from several areas of the formerly colonized world. Students should further have arrived at an understanding of how postcolonialism interacts with identity, class, gender, and race in the colonized and formerly colonized world. In terms of reading, students should have gained the tools to do a close reading of literary texts and apply theories to them. In terms of writing, students should have acquired the capacity to express their understanding of specific texts as postcolonial texts in three short papers and one longer paper.

Required readings to be purchased: the fictional texts Pramoedya Ananta Toer, House of Glass (Penguin ISBN #0-14-02.5679-2); Mahasweta Devi, “Draupadi;” Ousmane Sembene—Xala (Lawrence Hill Books ISBN #1-55652-070-0); Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (Harper ISBN #0-06-097749-3); and the film Xala, directed by Ousmane Sembene. Theoretical texts include parts of Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism, 2nd edition 2005, Routledge (ISBN #0-415-35064-6) and relevant essays placed on Alexander Online Reserve. All texts will be read or viewed in translation. All texts except “Draupadi” may be purchased at the Rutgers University Bookstore (Ferren Mall). If you wish to order books online, please make sure that you have them in time for the days on which we are discussing them, and please buy the editions noted above.

When books to be purchased are to be read, their titles are marked with an asterisk in the syllabus. If a required text to be read is not marked with an asterisk, it is to be found on Alexander Online Reserve. Please bring to class all required books, and copies of the literary and theoretical readings on Alexander Online Reserve that will be discussed on a particular day.

Requirements: attendance (10%), participation and oral presentation (15%), three short (3-4-page) take-home exams (15% each) and a 6-7-page final paper (30%).

SYLLABUS

*Please note: in the syllabus, only the author, the title, and the page numbers of a reading are given; complete references to the texts, which students will need in preparing a Works Cited section for each paper, are to be found under the author’s name in the Bibliography after remarks on plagiarism.

Wed. Sept. 7 Introduction to course content and format

Thurs. Sept. 8 (Monday class) What is postcolonialism? What is colonialism and what is the “post” in the term postcolonialism?

Readings:

1) Ania Loomba, “Chapter One: Situating Colonial and Postcolonial Studies.” In *Colonialism/Postcolonialism. 7-24 (through top paragraph).

2) Barbara Harlow and Mia Carter, ed. and introd., “The British East India Company.” In Imperialism and Colonialism, 4-7.

****Indonesia Unit****

Mon. Sept. 12 Introduction to colonialism and postcolonialism in Indonesia

Assignment: Look up Indonesia on Wikipedia and be ready to make one point in class about the nation of Indonesia or colonialism (dates, policies, etc.) in the Netherlands East Indies.

Wed. Sept. 14 Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s *House of Glass

Readings:

1) Pramoedya Ananta Toer, *House of Glass (final volume of “Buru Quartet,” 1980-88). Translator’s Note, Introduction (Max Lane), Chs. 1-3 (pp. 1-75).

2) Aimé Césaire, “Discourse on Colonialism.” Pp. 172-180.

Mon. Sept. 19 Orientalism in *House of Glass

Readings:

1) *House of Glass, Chs. 4-6 (pp. 76-158).

2) Edward W. Said, Orientalism. Pp.1-13, 201-211.

Wed. Sept. 21 Nationalism in *House of Glass

Readings:

1) *House of Glass, Chs. 7-9 (159-247).

2) Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, Pp. 1-7, 30-36.

Mon. Sept. 26 Colonial education in *House of Glass

Readings:

1) *House of Glass, Chs. 10-12 (248-315).

2) Ania Loomba, *Colonialism/Postcolonialism, 74-80 (from “This brings us to yet…” to end of first paragraph on p. 80).

3) Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Minute on Indian Education.” Pp. 428-430.

Wed. Sept. 28 Minke the nationalist, Pangemanann the colonialist

Reading: *House of Glass, Chs. 13-14 (pp. 316-359).

Mon. Oct. 3 Colonial education and traditional Javanese education

Readings:

1) Sanjay Seth, “Introduction.” Subject Lessons. Pp.1-5, 197-98; 17-18, 26-31, 42-45.

2) Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind (first volume of “The Buru Quartet”). Pp. 189-195, 208-217, 296-97, 307-313.

****India unit****

Wed. Oct. 5 Introduction to colonialism and postcolonialism in India

Assignment: Look up India on Wikipedia and be ready to make one point in class about the nation of India and/or the British colonization of India.

**First short exam due

Mon. Oct. 10 Literature of the subaltern—tribal people: Mahasweta Devi, “Draupadi” (1978)

Readings:

1) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Draupadi: Translator’s Foreword.” Pp. 1-18.

2) Mahasweta Devi, “Draupadi.” Pp. 19-38.

3) “The Author in Conversation.” Pp. ix-xxi.

Wed. Oct. 12 Theories of the subaltern

Readings:

1) Partha Chatterjee, “The Nation and Its Peasants.” Pp. 8-23.

2) Ranajit Guha, “On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India.” Pp. 1-7.

3) Abdul JanMohamed. “Between Speaking and Dying: Some Imperatives in the Emergence of the Subaltern in the Context of U.S. Slavery.” Pp. 139-155.

4) Ania Loomba, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In *Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Pp. 192-204.

5) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Pp. 24-28.

Mon. Oct. 17 Literature and Theories of the Subaltern: concluding discussion

Wed. Oct. 19 Literature of the Subaltern—Dalits and Women: Arundhati Roy, *The God of Small Things (1997).

Today’s topic: India’s Dalits (Untouchables). Reading: Broken People. Pp. 1-10, 179-199.

Mon. Oct. 24 Reading: *The God of Small Things. Chs. 1-2.

Wed. Oct. 26 The Issue of Women in Postcolonial India

Readings:

1) *The God of Small Things. Chs. 3-6.

2) Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” Pp. 259-263.

3) Sara Suleri, “Woman Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition.” Pp. 273-280.

Mon. Oct. 31 The Issue of Language in Postcolonial India

Readings:

1) *The God of Small Things. Chs. 7-10.

2) Frantz Fanon, “The Negro and Language.” Pp. 17-40.

Wed. Nov. 2 India and the Idea of Nation

Readings:

1) The God of Small Things. Chs. 11-14.

2) Amilcar Cabral, “National Liberation and Culture.” Pp. 53-65.

3) Ania Loomba, “Nationalism and Pan-Nationalisms.” In *Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Pp. 154-179.

4) Partha Chatterjee, “Nationalism As a Problem.” Pp. 164-166.

Mon. Nov. 7 India: Hybridity and the Subaltern

Readings:

1) The God of Small Things. Chs. 15-21.

2) *Ania Loomba, “Hybridity.” In *Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Pp. 145-153.

****Sénégal unit****

Wed. Nov. 9 Ousmane Sembene’s *Xala (1973) and the Notion of Mimicry

Readings:

1) Xala. Pp. 1-37.

2) Homi Bhabha, “Of Mimicry and Man.” Pp. 85-92.

**Second short exam due

Mon. Nov. 14 Ousmane Sembene, *Xala and the Issue of Language

Readings:

1) Xala. Pp. 37-76.

2) Chinua Achebe, “The African Writer and the English Language.” Pp. 428-434.

3) Ngugi wa Thiong’o,” The Language of African Literature.” Pp. 435-455.

Wed. Nov. 16 Gender in Xala

Readings:

1) *Xala. Pp. 76-103

2) Kirsten Holst Petersen, “First Things First: Problems of a Feminist Approach to African Literature.” Pp. 251-254.

3) *Ania Loomba, “Feminism, Nationalism, and Postcolonialism.” In *Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Pp.180-192.

Mon. Nov. 21 (Wednesday classes) Ousmane Sembene: Xala (film—1974)

Thanksgiving Break (Wed. Nov. 23-Sun. 27)

Mon. Nov. 28 (Wednesday classes) Ousmane Sembene: Xala (film) followed by a discussion of the differing possibilities offered by a novel versus a film in the context of postcolonialism.

****Guatemala unit****

Wed. Nov. 30 Introduction to Guatemala

***Third short exam due

Mon. Dec. 5 *I, Rigoberta Menchú (1983)

Readings:

1) *I, Rigoberta Menchú. Translator’s Note, Introduction, Chs. 1-3, 7-8, 11, 14.

2) John Beverley, “The Margin at the Center: On Testimonio (Testimonial Narrative.” Pp. 91-114.

Wed. Dec. 7 *I, Rigoberta Menchú

Readings:

1) *I, Rigoberta Menchú. Chs. 15, 18-19, 22-23, 25, 29, 31, 33-34.

2) John Beverley, “Our Rigoberta? I, Rigoberta Menchú, Cultural Authority, and the Problem of Subaltern Agency.” Pp. 427-447.

Mon. Dec. 12 Wrapping it up: postcolonialism now

Reading: Dawn Duncan, “A Flexible Foundation: Constructing a Postcolonial Dialogue.” Pp. 320-333.

Wed. Dec. 21: 12 Noon

***Final 6-7-page paper due

Requirements

1) Attendance. Students are expected to attend all classes and attendance will be taken at each class meeting. Each student is allowed two unexcused absences for the semester; exceeding that number will result in a lowering of the attendance grade by one point for each absence. Religiously observant students should indicate that they wish to be excused on religious holidays, and these absences will be considered excused absences, following university regulations. Athletes needing to attend practice or to take part in sport events at certain times should officially inform me of their absences; absences for these reasons will also be considered excused absences. Students should also let me know if they have transportation emergencies or scheduled job interviews, as these are also excused absences.

Student Absence Reporting for health and other emergency absences. As of the Fall 2011 semester, a new system of student absence reporting will be in effect. Under this system, students are responsible for reporting their health and other emergency absences on the Rutgers Self-Reporting Absence Website: . This central system alerts the Office of Undergraduate Education to students who would benefit from assistance in addressing health and family issues. If you expect to miss one or two classes for these reasons, please use the University Self-Reporting Absence Website, stating the date and reason for your absence. An email message is then automatically sent to me.

Long-term Absences. In cases where students must miss classes for periods longer than one week, they are directed to see a Dean of Students for assistance to help verify these circumstances.

3) Participation, including oral presentation. Students are expected to be ready to discuss the readings on the day for which they are assigned. Occasional quizzes will be given. In addition, each student will present an oral report on a topic from a list to be given out shortly after the semester begins. Presentations should last no more than ten minutes and will be graded on 1) the accuracy and originality of the close reading; 2) the organization of the presentation; 3) the quality of the delivery of the presentation (i.e., maintaining good eye contact with the audience, talking rather than reading off of a paper, etc.). If a student misses the day scheduled for their oral presentation for a legitimate reason (see under “excused absences”), they may make up the oral presentation at a later time. If a student misses the day scheduled for their oral presentation due to an unexcused absence, the student will not be allowed to make up the presentation.

4) Three short (3-4-page) take-home exams. These will be due on Oct. 5, Nov. 9, and Nov. 30. I will give out questions for these one or two class days before the exam is due. Exams may be either sent to me by email attachment or handed in in class on the due date. Late exams may be made up within two weeks of the due date.

5) One 6-7-page paper that involves theory and two texts read in the course. This will be due at the latest on the final exam date scheduled for the course, which is Wednesday Dec. 21. I will be handing out a list of suggested topics but I encourage students to propose their own topic for this paper. A paragraph proposing the topic must be handed in by Dec. 5.

***Note: All written work for the course should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman or equivalent, with margins of one inch on all sides. Give all papers a title, double-space them, number the pages, and staple the pages together. Proofread all papers to catch grammatical and spelling errors, and typos. Do not use sources outside of class readings. I will hand out a sheet of instructions, before the first take-home exam is due, on how to write a literature paper, another on how to do a close reading of a text, and another on how to quote from or refer to a text read in the course. Always include a Works Cited section at the end of your papers, though not necessarily on a separate sheet of paper. Follow MLA style and format ().

Please note that an A-range paper explains and interprets the material in an original manner, with an original and cogently articulated thesis. A B-range paper explains and interprets the material adequately, but not exceptionally. Both A-range and B-range papers refer specifically to the text(s), by discussing specific incidents and by quoting from the text(s). A C-range paper clearly presents and summarizes ideas in the text(s) but has a weak argument and does not quote from the text(s). A D-range paper presents an unclear argument or has no argument and does not deal specifically with the text(s).

Course Etiquette

Please note that no cell phones of any kind will be permitted during class time. You may use a laptop to take notes but you must disable its wireless connection.

Grading Policy

1) Attendance 10%

2) Participation and oral presentation 15%

3) Three short (3-4-page) take-home exams (15% each=45%)

4) One 6-7-page paper 30%

Total ------------------------------ 100%

Grading Rubric

A 90-100

B+ 87-89

B 80-86

C+ 77-79

C 70-76

D 60-69

F 59 and below

Policy on Plagiarism

Plagiarism can include using information from published materials (including the internet) without acknowledging the source, teaming up with a classmate to write papers, and having someone else write some or all of the paper for you. In this course I am interested in your ideas, in your work. If I should discover evidence of plagiarism, I will pursue it following the interim university regulations on academic integrity, which can be found at this website:

.

“Plagiarism is the representation of the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic work. To avoid plagiarism, every direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks, or by appropriate indentation, and must be cited properly according to the accepted format for the particular discipline. Acknowledgment is also required when material from any source is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in one’s own words. To acknowledge a paraphrase properly, one might state: to paraphrase Plato’s comment….and conclude with a footnote or appropriate citation to identify the exact reference….” (quoted from Interim Academic Integrity policy)

Here are a couple of plagiarism tutorials that students might consult:

“Consult Don’t Plagiarize: Document Your Research!” For tips about how to take notes so that you don’t plagiarize by accident.



A 20-minute Interactive Tutorial on Plagiarism and Academic Integrity.



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Bibliography

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised Edition. London and New York: Verso, 1991. 1-7, 30-36.

Beverley, John. “The Margin at the Center: On Testimonio (Testimonial Narrative).” In De/Colonizing the Subject: The Politics of Gender in Women’s Autobiography. Eds. Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992. 91-114.

Beverley, John. “Our Rigoberta? I, Rigoberta Menchú, Cultural Authority, and the Problem of Subaltern Agency.” In Postcolonialisms:An Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism. Eds. Gaurav Desai and Supriya Nair. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005. 427-447.

Bhabha, Homi. “Of Mimicry and Man.” In Homi K. Bhabha. The Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge, 1994. 85-92.

Burgos-Debray, Elisabeth, ed. and introd. I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. Trans. Ann Wright. 2nd English edition. London and New York: Verso, 2009.

Cabral, Amilcar. “National Liberation and Culture.” In Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory. Eds. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. 53-65.

Césaire, Aimé. “From Discourse on Colonialism.” In Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader. Ed. and introd. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. 172-180.

Chatterjee, Partha. “The Nation and Its Peasants.” In Mapping Subaltern Studies and the Postcolonial. Ed. and introd. Vinayak Chaturvedi. London and New York: New Left Review, 2000. 8-23.

Chatterjee, Partha. “Nationalism As a Problem.” In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Eds. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. New York and London: Routledge, 1995. 164-166.

Devi, Mahasweta. “Draupadi.” In Mahasweta Devi. Breast Stories. Trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1997. 19-38.

Duncan, Dawn. “A Flexible Foundation: Constructing a Postcolonial Dialogue.” In Relocating Postcolonialism. Eds. David Theo Goldberg and Ato Quayson. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. 320-333.

Fanon, Frantz. “The Negro and Language.” In Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (Peau noire, masques blancs, 1952] Trans. Charles Lam Markmann. New York: Grove Press, 1967. 17-40.

Guha, Ranajit. “On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India.” In Mapping Subaltern Studies and the Postcolonial. Ed. and introd. Vinayak Chaturvedi. London and New York: New Left Review, 2000. 1-7.

Harlow, Barbara and Mia Carter, ed. and introd. Imperialism and Colonialism: A Documentary Sourcebook. Malden, Mass. and Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. 4-7.

Human Rights Watch. Broken People: Caste Violence Against India’s “Untouchables.” New York, Washington, London, Brussels: Human Rights Watch, 1999. 1-10, 179-199.

JanMohamed, Abdul. “Between Speaking and Dying: Some Imperatives in the Emergence of the Subaltern in the Context of U.S. Slavery.” In Can the Subaltern Speak?: Reflections on the History of an Idea. Ed. Rosalind C. Morris. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 139-155.

Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. 2nd edition. London and New York: Routledge, 2005.

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. “Minute on Indian Education.” In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Eds. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. 428-430.

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Eds. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. 259-263.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o. “The Language of African Literature.” In Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory. Eds. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. 435-455.

Petersen, Kirsten Holst. “First Things First: Problems of a Feminist Approach to African Literature.” In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Eds. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. 251-254.

Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. 1-13, 201-211.

Sembene, Ousmane. Xala. Trans. Clive Wake. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1976.

Seth, Sanjay. Subject Lessons: The Western Education of Colonial India. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “The Author in Conversation.” In Imaginary Maps: Three Stories by Mahasweta Devi. Trans. and introd. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. New York and London: Routledge, 1995. ix-xxi.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” [radically abridged version] In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Eds. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. 24-28.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Draupadi: Translator’s Foreword.” In Mahasweta Devi, Breast Stories. Trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1997. 1-18.

Suleri, Sara. “Woman Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition.” In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Eds. Bill Ashcrift, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. 273-280.

Toer, Pramoedya Ananta. House of Glass. Trans. Max Lane. New York: Penguin, 1992.

Toer, Pramoedya Ananta. This Earth of Mankind. Trans. Max Lane. New York: Penguin, 1990.

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