LITR 5734 Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

LITR 5731 (spring 2006) research postings

map of Africa

ID cards

Name (as you want it to appear)

contact information: email(s), phone(s), US Mail

What degree are you seeking? Why this course?

Anything you want me to know about your semester, where you are in your studies, life, etc.?

Presentation preferences or "No preferences"

Preference for formal assignment? Poetry, Dialogue, Film?

Days, authors, subjects? Any information welcome . . . .

Any bad days when you shouldn't be assigned?

Any volunteers for next Tuesday?

overview of subject

terminology of course title unfamiliar to most Americans

remember confusion as something you can write about in your midterm

Why haven’t you heard of colonial and postcolonial literature?

This area of study is in place at most major research universities in the U.S., BUT . . .

Most of its leading scholars are in other countries (or come to the U.S. from other countries),

and most of the original scholarship in the area took place outside the U.S., esp. in Commonwealth Countries (Australia, England, New Zealand), in France, and the formerly colonized countries themselves.

Why those countries?

Other developed countries besides the USA are typically more aware of their place in an international system or order. Colonialism and postcolonialism are parts of their history, acknowledged and studied as such.

Why not the USA?

The United States has more of an us-and-them attitude, America and everybody else, either Americans or wannabes except for terrorists

“us” = the uncorrupted, constantly reborn truth, innocence and ignorance, and

“them” = corrupted and burdened by history, memory, strife, limits, compromise, etc.

(America as non-historic reality--always reinventing itself, escaping past, getting born again)

See Objective 3

What is meant by colonial and postcolonial?

cover page of syllabus

homepage of website

Colonial: app. 1500s-1900s, but reaching its peak in the late 19^th, early 20^th centuries; period(s) of history in which the developed world of Europe (and/or USA) colonized and revolutionized the undeveloped world

[+ earlier empires? Ottoman, Mughal, Mayan, Japanese, Roman, Ming?]

Postcolonial: 20^th century, but especially post-World War 2, 1940s-1960s

Trigger for change:

Nationalist movement in India, centered in figure of Gandhi, starting around 1900 (though some phases earlier)

World Wars 1 & 2, which can be interpreted as battles for empire 

Postwar era (1940s-60s)--campaigns and wars of liberation, decolonization

French from Algeria

Brits from Suez Canal

various African colonies kick out colonizers and become nations on their own

Major Events:

Partition of British India: 15 August 1947

“India” to that point was more or less the entire Indian Subcontinent, which now contains the nations of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Burma.

India was part of the British Empire, which centralized administration, developed transportation (esp. railroads) and communications.

Before British Empire, “India” was more of a region than a nation, with many Indian states of various ethnic groups, religious and political traditions.

African Nationalist Movement: from 1958-1964, 26 African nations became independent from European colonial administration or rule.

Suez Crisis of 1956: Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal; Britain backs down.

1997: Hong Kong detaches from Great Britain, returns to Chinese oversight

Outcomes:

Many nations created by postcolonial movement are conflicted, artificial constructions
--boundaries drawn by colonial administrators
--mixing ethnic groups that are traditional enemies

Examples:

Congo (where Heart of Darkness takes place)

Nigeria (where Things Fall Apart takes place)

Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon

Much error and strife, but part of world history > knowledge of planet, resources, interactions and dialogues between peoples

That's content!

>>>>>Objective 2 . . . .

theory of novel

2. To theorize the novel as the defining genre of modernity, both for early-modern imperial culture and for late-modern postcolonial culture.

2a. By definition, the genre of the novel combines fundamental representational modes of narrative and dialogue. These modes respectively control and decenter storytelling.

·        Alternately, narrative and dialogue respectively foreground literate and spoken voices. Especially in postcolonial literature the narrator may be a “literate” voice, while characters’ voices represent unwritten, spoken, or oral traditions—another intertextuality.

·        How may literary fiction instruct or deepen students’ knowledge of world history and international relations compared to history, political science, anthropology, etc.?

Why bringing this up? Why emphasis on formal genre?

Danger of Literature courses becoming overly politicized or historical, need to continually refocus on formal issues

Why?

1. reading great or important, maybe-great novels

Everybody's got a political opinion, and everyone's willing to express grievance and outrage, so that kind of talk is pretty cheap.

Literature instead studies those moments or movements where language lifts itself and us to something higher, some new progress or evolution of thought and speech.

In colonial and postcolonial literature, the chief genre or vehicle for exchanging and developing knowledge has been the novel.

The origin of the novel is primarily  European or Western, but it has universal or international potential, as other cultures appear to make it their own.

That's style or literary form!