Advanced Course on Postcolonial Theory
This is an advanced course on Postcolonial Theory. In this course, we will examine some of the influential scholarship that constitutes the field of Postcolonial Studies. We will look at a few of the important debates that were waged, including a fierce one on the legitimacy of the term 302221postcolonial302222 itself, the critical vocabulary and methodological tools that developed, and analytical practices that this field engendered. Some of the topics that the course may wish to emphasize upon are as follows:
1) colonial discourse analysis, which forms a significant part of Postcolonial Studies, especially in the formative years.
2) The institutional and disciplinary history of the development of Postcolonial Studies: how it was and is conditioned by it development in the Anglo-American academy, specifically in English departments, since the1980s.
3) Postcolonial Studies302222 relationship with other parallel fields302227 such as Cultural Studies, Feminism and Queer Studies, Memory and Trauma Studies, and so on302227which have overlapping, and sometimes conflicting, concerns with Postcolonial Studies.
4) New directions and future of Postcolonial Studies.In selecting texts and debates from what is a robust field, we may show a bias for those that pertain to the Indian subcontinent. While reference to literary studies and literary texts will assume importance in our endeavour, this course is not intended to be a literature survey course.
Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.Mongia, Padmini, ed. Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies. Vols. 1.1 and 1.2. New York, London: Routledge, 1998-1999.A list of possible readings (this list is best seen as a sample):Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992.Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. 1983. Revised Edition. London, New York: Verso, 1991.Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994.Bhabha, Homi, ed. Nation and Narration. London, New York: Routlegde,1990. Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.Mongia