6 credits | Prof. Daniel Elam
This course introduces students to the influential and inter-disciplinary field of Postcolonial Studies. It builds on earlier units in other departmental classes by surveying this field as a whole. It studies representative texts, problems, and concepts central to the study of colonialism and postcolonialism. Since this is a vast area of world history and culture (dating from at least 1492), not all issues, key texts, concepts, and geographic areas can be considered, and so will vary by instructor. However topics to be examined can include: definitions of colonialism, imperialism and the post-colonial condition; orientalism and occidentalism; colonial discourse and sexuality and gender; race; the nation and nationalism as imagined community; identities and mentalities of the colonized and colonizer. Representative areas might include the mainland and greater China, but will certainly include some texts from and places within South and South East Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. Texts can include literature, film, non-fiction, television, advertizing and the media.
Assessment: 100% coursework.