English and drama
Reading Post-Colonial Texts
Module code: Q3072
Level 5
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework
This module will introduce you to postcolonial studies. We will attend to the legacies of colonialism, and focus upon the ways colonial forces have affected writing and other forms of culture (for example film).
By the end of the module, we will be familiar with most of the key theoretical, methodological, historical and ideological issues raised in postcolonial writing. We will make ourselves aware of the importance of postcolonial discourse as a way of thinking about cultural production, circulation and reception, and be able to apply this understanding to the interpretation of texts discussed on the module.
We will summarise some of the key critical concepts involved in the field, from ‘hybridity’ to ‘liminality’ and ‘spectrality.’
Some of the topics and issues we will explore include:
- travel
- difference
- language
- diaspora
- violence
- resistance
- gender
- sexuality
- memory
- haunting
- intertextuality
- canonicity
- orality
- nationalism
- belonging
- indigeneity
- ‘race’
- ecocriticism
- the touristic
- ‘native’
- globality
- solidarity.
Writers may include Jean Rhys, Shani Mootoo, Abdulrazak Gurnah, J.M. Coetzee, Assia Djebar, Mourid Barghouti and NoViolet Bulawayo.
Module learning outcomes
- A heightened sensitivity to different kinds of literary writing and to details of language.
- A familiarity with a range of established and emergent critical positions in the field of postcolonial literature and theory.
- A larger critical vocabulary for thinking, talking and writing about postcolonial literatures.
- An enhanced capacity to compose ideas and arguments in clear and accurately presented critical prose.