| Description |
"The Empire writes back!"
Coined by Salman Rushdie in 1982, this phrase has since come to encapsulate the way in which literature from the former colonies has burst onto the stage, providing much needed alternatives to the conventional voices of the Western canon. In parallel, scholars have come to analyze the postcolonial world – its history, culture, and literary phenomena – highlighting the harm done by imperialism, the resistance to colonial legacies in thought and speech, and the ways in which literature has both captured the moods of burgeoning nation states and helped further anti-colonial practices – "writing back", as it were, to the metropolis.
In today's increasingly interconnected world, where migratory experiences have become the norm rather than an aberration, the study of other cultures and non-canonical texts has become a necessity. Thus, in this seminar we will focus on former European colonies, specifically those in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and the Caribbean. The seminar is divided in two parts. First, we will learn about the core concepts of postcolonial studies, defining terms such as "colonialism", "hybridity", "subalternity" and others, while also getting acquainted with some of the foremost thinkers in postcolonial studies. Then, we will deal in more detail with narratives from postcolonial authors around the globe, such as Chinua Achebe, Anita Desai, Salman Rushdie, Karl Sealy, Jean Rhys, and others. |
| Literature |
Required: for our weekly seminar sessions, we will primarily deal with short fiction and excerpts of scholarly essays. All texts will be made available via Moodle. You will receive an e-mail with the password in due time.
Optional: as the seminar concludes with a term paper, it is always a good idea to get some additional reading in while you can – term paper topics come easier that way. For more short fiction, there will be a repository of anthologies at the library (Semesterapparat). In addition, you will find a list with some of the more famous authors/novels you might want to take a look at on Moodle. This list is going to be abridged, but it provides you with a good starting point if you want to read more. |
| Learning Content |
Knowledge: in this seminar you will learn about the history of postcolonial studies, its key concepts, and some of its foremost thinkers. You will also get acquainted with some of the authors who made an impact in the world of global anglophone literature.
Technique: this seminar aims at imparting three crucial skillsets
a) while analyzing the literary texts, we will naturally brush up on your basic narratological skills - e.g. who is speaking? what is the difference between author and narrator? how have the characters developed? how do texts differ stylistically? are there multiple distinct levels of narrative? is the narrative chronological?
b) while reading excerpts from scholarly essays, we will get you used to studying academic works - e.g. what is the main position of the author? what are their strongest/weakest arguments? are they criticial of something? do we agree with them? how does their work relate to postcolonial studies or the literary works we're reading?
c) in preparation for the term paper, we will (time permitting) work on some related skills - e.g. how do I formulate a thesis? how do I find secondary literature? what is the structure of a term paper? how do I cite my sources correctly? |
