Postcolonial Studies Minor

This course is designed as an introduction to the field of postcolonial studies. Readings will familiarise students with a diversity of “world literature” and grant an understanding of key debates in postcolonial studies. As postcolonialism is not a unified field of study, the course engages with different theoretical understandings of the term and queries what it even means to be “postcolonial.” When exactly does the postcolonial begin? What are the implications of using such a broad umbrella term to designate writings from around the world? Students will explore depictions of the colonial encounter and decolonisation, question the links between colonialism and globalisation, and examine constructions of East and West, Global North and Global South. Central to the course will be the themes of: power and violence; economics and class; land and nation; authenticity and development; gender and sexuality; history and memory; the politics of literature; and the politics of print culture. Students will read a diverse and broad historical selection of texts from a variety of geographical locations including, India, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Jamaica. Literary texts will be paired with theoretical readings from such critics as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Ann McLintock, Benita Parry, Franz Fanon, and Edward Said. Although the main focus of study is literature, the course will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, understanding literary works as products of cultural, historical, social, and political circumstances. Throughout the course, students will explore how colonial power has shaped—and continues to shape—the world in which we live. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)

This survey course is an introduction to the political, economic, social, and intellectual history of the west from the scientific revolution to the present. Our knowledge and understanding of the past is contingent and contested. The course explores areas of contestation to give students a better understanding of the forces and events which have shaped the modern world.

This course is an introduction to themes and trends in the political, economic, cultural, and social history of modern societies in global perspective. It covers the development of societies in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from the "Columbian Exchange" to the twenty-first century with emphasis on the development of institutions within their changing cultural, political, and environmental context, as well as the impact of encounters between human societies. Students are introduced to the historiography of globalization and of the modern state. Further attention is devoted to the analysis of different categories of primary sources. (It is recommended that HIS 104 be taken prior to HIS 105).

Beginning with the post-colonial theory of Edward Said and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, this class will examine the ideas of exile and immigration in a colonial and post-colonial context. This course will explore exile vs. expatriatism, language and power, movement across cultures, narrative agency and authority, and voices in the new immigrant narrative. By approaching the topic from a comparative perspective, students will be exposed to a polyphony of voices and the variety of experiences associated with exile and the construction of identity. Students will examine, in particular, the variations on the autobiographical form in the context of this experience.(This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements).

In this course, the class will work to create a more critical understanding of what race is, what race does, and how contemporary racial meanings are constructed and disseminated. In order to do so, students will explore Critical Race Theory (CRT) and critical theories of race in several contexts. CRT refers to a theory that emerged among legal educators in the US in the 1980s and 1990s. In the last twenty years, a growing number of scholars in fields such as cultural studies, gender studies, history, media studies, politics, postcolonial studies and sociology have integrated and developed the work done by critical race theorists. This course will focus in particular on this interdisciplinary approach to critical race studies. The practice of race will be examined as well as the policies and institutions that shape race in a global context in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Finally, students will consider the intersection of race and other social hierarchies, including gender, sexuality and social class.

This course examines media in the context of globalization. Most broadly, students will explore what constitutes globalization, how globalization has been facilitated and articulated by media, how media have been shaped by the processes of globalization, and perhaps most significantly, the social implications of these complex and varied processes on politics, international relations, advocacy and cultural flows. In order to map this terrain, students will survey the major theories that constitute this dynamic area of study.

The course will introduce students to the evolution of theory and practice in economic development in three stages. First, models of economic growth and development including work by Harrod-Domar, Robert Solow, Arthur Lewis, and Michael Kremer are compared to provide students with a feeling for how economists have conceived of the development process. The class then proceeds to examine particular development issues such as population growth, stagnant agriculture, environmental degradation, illiteracy, gender disparities, and rapid urbanization to understand how these dynamics reinforce poverty and deprivation. In the final stage, students will read work by supporters as well as critics of international development assistance and use the knowledge and perspective they have gained thus far to independently evaluate efficacy of a specific development intervention.

This course focuses on fictional works written by authors whose identities straddle the Mediterranean. Whether they immigrated from Algeria, Tunisia or Morocco to France or were born in France to immigrant parents, these writers have found an outlet for the expression of their personal experience in writing. These fictions gives rise to a number of issues such as the important role French people of Maghreb origins have played in the cultural shaping of France since the independence of the countries mentioned above, the subsequent interior colonialism they were and are still subject to, the topographical and social divides that separate the different ethnic strata of French society, the gender issues that have developed since the "regroupement familial" in 1974. As a complement to the readings, students will see different documentaries and / or films that will sociologically, historically and culturally frame these issues.

This course is an introduction to the multifaceted civilization of Judaism as both a religion and as a historical phenomenon. After a survey of the background and preconditions of the emergence of the Hebrew bible and of monotheistic culture within the context of the Middle East in antiquity, the course focuses on the cultural mechanisms such as religious law and memory that kept the various Jewish worlds somewhat linked, despite the Diaspora from the time of the Babylonian Captivity, and even more so following the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. Attention is given to religious, cultural, and social developments that made Judaism survive from antiquity through the middle ages to the present, and also to the different reactions to its respective environments, in areas as diverse as Babylonia in the age of the Talmud, the "Golden Age" of Islamic Spain, or Germany in the Modern era. The course concludes with the rise of a Jewish center in Palestine in the twentieth century, and the ensuing tensions between this center and the persisting diasporas.(This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)

In 1905 Japan became the first non-western country to defeat a western power, in this case Russia, in the modern era. This was the culmination of a forty-year effort by Japan to embrace modernity and resist western domination. It also served as a powerful inspiration to the peoples of Asia and to the rise of anti-colonial nationalism in the region. For much of the twentieth century the most populous continent was the scene of much convulsion; war (including cold war), revolution and widespread human suffering. Asia has since transcended these difficulties to become a global economic powerhouse, a process that was heavily influenced by the clash of imperialism and nationalism and by the Cold War, a global polarization that led not just to ‘cold’ tensions but also to ‘hot’ conflicts. Issues addressed include the rise, fall and rise of Japan, anti-colonial nationalism, wars in Asia including in Korea and Vietnam, and the emergence of China as a world power. As well as conflict and high politics, students examine how various ideologies affected societies. In pursuit of development and prosperity for their people, governments across Asia transformed daily life out of all recognition, for better or for worse. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)

This course undertakes an in-depth discussion of the origins and development of nationalism as an ideology, as a political movement, and as a source of internal and international conflict in Europe. Following an introduction to important approaches in the theory of nationalism, special attention is devoted to the periods of the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War and its impact, and the period after the end of the Cold War in 1989. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)

The world today has been shaped to a large extent by Europe and America in the long nineteenth century between the Enlightenment and the First World War. During this period dramatic changes in social, economic, political and cultural ideas and institutions were related to changes in how people in the West conceptualized the world around them. Although Europeans and Americans exerted global influence through industrialization and imperialism, in turn they were influenced by people beyond the West from Africa to the Far East. Thus globalization is not a recent phenomenon. With emphasis on Christopher Bayly's recent book The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons, among other works, this course will focus on major themes in the study of modernity such as political ideologies and the roles of science and religion as related to the development of the idea of "Europe" or "the West" with special reference to the British colonies, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan. It is intended to provide not only a broad view of a crucial period in modern history but also a functional knowledge of themes and concepts necessary for understanding the contemporary world. Students read primary as well as secondary sources, and attention is devoted to methodological considerations and recent trends in scholarship.

The period in Germany history between 1918 and 1933, commonly referred to as “Weimar Germany”, can be seen in many contradictory ways: as an era sandwiched between two authoritarian regimes as well as as the country’s first strong republic; this democracy kept struggling constantly with severe and sometimes violent attacks from the political extremes (and sometimes even its neighbors), and yet displayed remarkable endurance. As such, the Weimar Republic is a powerful example for the possibilities and limits of modern democracy, and for the interplay between politics and culture in the modern world. Starting with a discussion of different concepts of modernities, this interdisciplinary seminar will provide a detailed examination of the political, cultural, social and economical developments of the 1920s and early 1930s, and analyze their representation in the arts, in the contemporary media, and in architecture.

In this course, students will read a broad selection of British Literature, from the post-war period to the present day. While the literature of the early twentieth century is often characterized as international in nature, in the post-war era and during the epoch of decolonization, British literature takes an apparent inward turn, becoming increasingly interested in the nature and definition of Britishness. Yet, the literature from this period is not necessarily insular or parochial, but rather depicts the emergence of a complex and contested national identity as the British archipelago developed from within its own borders to become a more and more culturally diverse territory. During the course, students will examine how regional identities conflict or overlap with national identity considering, for example, the North/South divide and urban/rural divisions; will study the rise of various competing nationalisms within the bounds of the archipelago, including Scottish nationalism; and will explore the growing impact of diverse immigrant communities on the national character. The course examines British literature and culture not as a homogenous whole but as a varied and sometimes contentious conglomeration. Through reading a variety of poetry, prose, and drama, students will explore what characterizes contemporary Britain and what the status and role of literary culture is today. They will develop an understanding of the current state of British literary production as well as the relation between the nation state and the state of fiction. Reading list may include works by: Julian Barnes, Seamus Heaney, Sam Selvon, Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, and Irvine Welsh.

This course explores the meanings of "Modernism," the artistic tendency which sprang up in a profusion of forms in the first half of the twentieth century. This was a time of sweeping social change and radical innovation in literature. As students ask, "what is modernism?" they will engage with the contingencies, complexities, and contradictions of modern literature, and acknowledge the sheer diversity of the literary responses to modern times. Students will read works from a variety of modernist movements, and consider the relationship between literary modernism and developments in music and the visual arts. They will study works by such writers as Mulk Raj Anand, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, and Nella Larsen. As modern literature often broke with or transformed traditional concepts of literary realism, some of the course work will be challenging; it will ask students to pay close attention to narrative innovations such as stream of consciousness, irony, and multiple point of view. The course will consider various issues, including: emerging psychological theories, responses to imperialism, technological and scientific advances, the city, attitudes towards history, concepts of self and other, and changing relations between genders, cultures, and races.

How do we define home? What does it mean to feel or make one's self at home? Is a home a house, a place, or, to use another cliché, is home "where the heart is"? In this course, students will examine different conceptions of home in a variety of fictional works. The course will look at constructions of home as an architectural, domestic, and often gendered space. It will also ask students to think about what it means to define home more broadly as, for example, a homeland or native tongue, and, in so doing, consider how modern immigration and the processes of globalisation have changed our relationship to our homes. Throughout the course readings will invite us to reflect upon the links between home and belonging. Finally, as students read about homes that are on the move (caravans, nomads, etc.) or otherwise in flux, they will rethink the binary opposition between the home and the journey. Works read include: Jean Rhys's Voyage in the Dark, Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, Henry James's The Spoils of Poynton, and Amitav Ghosh's The Shadow Lines.

The interplay between political and economic issues has become central to the study of international relations in the modern world. This course will examine the traditional theoretical foundations of International Political Economy (the views of the liberals, the Marxists, the nationalists, etc.) and their applicability to today's world. Using an inter-disciplinary approach, the course will look at both historical background and present-day issues and conditions. The problems of development and North-South relations and the question of sustainability will be examined. International trade issues, such as the relations between trade globalization and environmental and human rights concerns and the role of institutions such as, the WTO, the IMF and G8 meetings will be studied. Finally the course will also consider new problem areas such as the internet and its control and e-commerce and the emerging role of non-governmental organizations.(Formerly POL 277. Students cannot earn credit for both POL 277 and POL 377.)

Colonialism has left its traces not only very obviously on the former colonies themselves but also on the face of the cities of the colonisers. Host of the “Congo Conference” that carved up the continent in 1885, Germany was late into the “scramble for Africa.” However, it has long been implicated in colonialism through trade, scientific exploration, and Hamburg’s position as a “hinterland” of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Seeking to explore colonial echoes in less obvious places, namely in contemporary Berlin and Hamburg, the course asks how we can remember colonialism in the modern world, become conscious of its traces, and encourage critical thinking about the connections between colonialism, migration and globalization. As an Academic Travel, this course will include an on-site component where the class will team up with postcolonial focus groups in Berlin and Hamburg, going onto the street and into the museum to retrace the cities’ colonial connections, and to experience and engage with the colonial past through performance-based activities.

Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French authors and artists were instrumental in shaping the imaginary of the “Orient”, with a myriad of paintings and texts housed for public consumption in national cultural institutions. Students will use the French case to explore the politics of representation: the creation and objectification of an Oriental “Other”. On-the-ground field study in museums, archives and galleries of Paris (the former colonial capital) and Marseille (the “Gateway to North Africa”) will help students to investigate the ties that bind the visual arts and literature with the exercising of knowledge and power, and to read literary and artistic works as shaped by their cultural and historical circumstances. The strong Arab and Berber presence in both cities today, in particular from France's former colonies in North Africa, will provide the impetus to question how contemporary writers and artists explicitly and implicitly engage with and renegotiate these “cultural artifacts”, and what broader significance this might have for questions of representation and identity, Self and Other, in the (not only French) present. Students will read contemporary texts by authors such as Leïla Sebbar and Assia Djébar and explore work by visual artists including Zineb Sedira and Zoulikha Bouabdellah, using their, and our own, “encounters” in the Louvre, the Pompidou Center, the Arab World Institute, MuCEM and smaller galleries to consider the significance of reappropriating the gaze and of the relationship between visual pleasure and politics, while questioning who art is “for” and where the “representation business” takes us. (The course may count toward the French Studies major in consultation with the coordinator of the French Studies program.)

Concurrent with processes of globalization, there has been a fervent, if not reactionary, revival of folk culture. Although the reinvention of folk cultures is a global phenomenon, it is particularly salient in places like Scotland—a complex nation that is as much British, modern, and Western as it is local, artisanal and traditional. Longstanding clashes over regional independence, enduring ties to local geographies and customs, and a thriving tourism industry in Scotland, have sustained rich folk cultures that serve both as powerful sources of identification as well as seductive expressions of national identity and culture. Using discursive and rhetorical approaches, this course explores the various ways in which “folk” identities, practices, cultures, and artifacts are represented and mobilized in the Scottish context by various communities and stakeholders.

India has often been described as one of the developing countries that has achieved considerable economic success by following a neo-liberal policy regime in the past twenty years. However, over the last two years, India’s growth has stagnated. Moreo-ver, a substantial part of the population continues to live below the poverty line and lack access to basic services like clean water, health care, education etc. This course has been designed to use India as a case study to investigate the impact of globaliza-tion on development and will introduce students to different facets of globalization and allow students to understand the complicated interrelations between globaliza-tion and development. Students will study about labor reforms, environmental sus-tainability, politics of land grab, agricultural policies, urbanization-all within the framework of political economy of globalization and economic development. Students will be introduced to the flourishing IT and financial service sector, one of the main beneficiaries of globalization and the impact these sectors have had on India’s grow-ing middle class. Students will then be introduced to the problems and issues faced in the semi urban regions of the country. This travel course will allow students to ob-serve and recognize the causes of uneven growth and the consequent impact on peo-ple’s standards of living.

Ireland has undergone profound social, economic and political changes over the last two centuries. Its history has been largely defined, for better or worse, by its relationship with its larger neighbor, Britain. This course critically examines the contours and effects of this often troubled relationship which can largely be defined as the struggle between union and dis-union, that is, either strengthening or severing the link with Britain. Going beyond these constitutional issues it also examines wider social and cultural changes; the famine and its legacy, the land revolution of the late nineteenth century, emigration, the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy and Ireland’s delayed sexual revolution.

For such a small nation, Scotland is certainly a very noisy one. From traditional Mouth Music, to Gaelic folk tales, to the Bay City Rollers, The Proclaimers, and indie-pop groups such as Belle and Sebastian and Django Django, Scotland has a long and rich culture of music. This travel course places Scotland’s rich musical heritage in the broader context of storytelling in all its forms and genres, including film, fiction, and poetry. Students will travel from Edinburgh on the east coast to Glasgow on the west, and will also visit the Highlands and Islands to study the vibrant folk music culture there. Scottish music will be used as an entrance point to the country’s culture and history. As students close read (and close listen) a variety of works, they will investigate the ways in which these works buy into, help to build, or struggle against particular mythologies of “Scottishness.” The course will also explore the links between storytelling and nationalism, oral and written tradition, popular and “high” culture. While most attention will be paid to works produced in Scotland, the course will also take into account externally produced images of Scotland and the Scottish (for example, the abiding popularity of Braveheart or The Simpson’s Groundskeeper Willie). Finally, the course will consider how Scottish music and literature has been marketed and produced in such venues as university departments of Scottish or Celtic Studies, record labels such as Postcard Records, and publishers such as Cannongate Press.