COLONIALISM, RACE, SEX, AND GENDER

This course is an exploration of historical episodes in which categories of race, gender and, inevitably, sexuality have interacted and shifted as a result of colonial encounters. Guided by current theoretical insights, we shall cover four extended historical episodes in different parts of the globe and at different time periods, in which encounters between expanding imperial cultures and indigenous cultures combined to produce societies with racial and gender hierarchies, and in which sex was a site of colonial anxiety, exploitation and regulation. Recent scholarship on imperialism and colonialism has shown how gender and race were crucial markers of colonial social order upon which governing regimes depended. Hierarchies of race have been constructed by imperial powers to buttress their supremacy, and have been both contested and accommodated by colonized peoples. Gender codes were deployed in conjunction with race, so that colonial rulers defined manliness, for example, to fit their own behaviour and to denigrate or control colonized men. Colonized women, often coerced into prostitution or to accept unsanctioned unions with colonizing men, were measured against definitions of femininity based on white Western ideals. By exploring four different historical episodes in which colonialism, race, gender and sex interacted, students will look at the history of the modern world from perspectives that shed light on contemporary social and cultural issues. The four episodes will show how these mutually constitutive categories have played out across time and across geographical boundaries, and at once how they have shifted.

Required reading

Books available at the Oberlin Bookstore:

Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

Joy Damousi, Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in

Colonial Australia

Luise White, The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi

George Orwell, Burmese Days

Ann Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in

Colonial Rule

Readings on Reserve at the library:

Patricia Grimshaw, Marilyn Lake, Ann McGrath and Marian Quartly, Creating A Nation,

Ch. 6 “Sex, Violence and Theft: 1830-1910.”

Clare Midgley, “Female Emancipation in an Imperial Frame: English women and the

campaign against sati (widow-burning) in India, 1813-30,” Women’s History

Review vol. 9 no. 1 (2000): pp. 95-121.

Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The “Manly Englishman” and the “Effeminate

Bengali” in the Late Nineteenth Century Chapter Four “Potent Protests: The Age of

Consent Controversy 1891.”

Nancy Paxton, “Mobilizing Chivalry: Rape in British Novels about the Indian Uprising o

of 1857,” Victorian Studies vol. 36, no. 1 (1992): 5-30.

Alice L. Conklin and Ian Christopher Fletcher (eds.), European Imperialism 1830-1930

Part I “The ‘New Imperialism’” pp. 11-43.

Susan Pedersen, “National Bodies, Unspeakable Acts: The Sexual Politics of Colonial

Policy Making,” Journal of Modern History vol. 63 no. 4 (1991): 647-80.

Assignments

Students will be required to lead discussion twice throughout the semester, and to write two essays.

Discussion Every student is required to do all the reading and come to class ready to discuss it. At the beginning of the semester, each student will sign up for two class periods/topics, one prior to or including March 22 and one later. For the discussions to which you are assigned, you must bring to class two thoughtful, analytical questions based on the readings (typed up, to hand in after class). Please bring copies for everyone.

First essay

On March 22, your first essay will be due. It will be a response to the essay question that I shall hand out on March 8. Your essay should be 8 pages long, typed, double-spaced.

Second essay

Your second essay will be on a subject of your own choice, related to the course topics, themes and materials. I shall meet with each student individually to discuss final essay topics and bibliographies. On April 26 your essay prospectus will be due: it must include a title, a half-page outline of your topic, and a bibliography of at least five books and/or articles. The essay itself is due by Friday May 14 at 5pm. It must be 15 pages typed, double-spaced.

Grading

Course grades will be assigned as follows:

Class attendance and participation in discussion 20%

Discussion questions 2x10% = 20%

First essay 20%

Final essay 40%

Class schedule

Introduction: Imperialism, Colonialism, and World History

Feb 9 Introduction: syllabi, course themes and procedures

Why “Colonialism, Race, Sex and Gender?”

The Rise of European Imperialism

Feb 16 How colonialism worked

An interview with Chinua Achebe [video]

Discussion of Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

Topic 1: An Enlightenment Experiment? Britain’s Penal Colonies in 18^th-19^th C Australia

Feb 23 Eighteenth-Century Britain and the construction of penal colonies

Female convicts, sexuality and gender

Discussion of Joy Damousi, Depraved and Disorderly

March 1 Black/white interactions in early Australia

Discussion of Patricia Grimshaw, Marilyn Lake, Ann McGrath and Marian

Quartly, Creating A Nation, Ch. 6 “Sex, Violence and Theft: 1830-1910”

Topic 2: The British Raj in India: The 1857 “Mutiny” and After

March 8 British Imperialism in 19^th C India

Discussion of Clare Midgley, “Female Emancipation in an Imperial Frame”

and Mrinalini Sinha, “Potent Protests: The Age of Consent Controversy 1891.”

*ESSAY QUESTION HANDED OUT

March 15 The “Mutiny” of 1857, or the “First War of Independence?”

Discussion of Nancy Paxton, “Mobilizing Chivalry”

March 22 Race, sex, gender and the post-“Mutiny” Raj; colonial masculinities,

femininities and Indian nationalism

Discussion of George Orwell, Burmese Days

*FIRST ESSAY DUE

<March 29^th Spring Recess>

Topic 3: “The Heart of Darkness”: European Imperialism in Subsaharan Africa

April 5 Late 19^th C British and Belgian imperialism in Subsaharan Africa

Discussion of Conklin and Fletcher (eds.), Part I “The ‘New Imperialism’” pp.

11-43.

April 12 Gender and the Body in Colonial Regimes

British women and the colonial mission: missionaries, nurses, teachers and

colonial wives

Film clip: “Mr. Johnson” [film of novel by Joyce Cary]

Discussion of Susan Pedersen, “National Bodies, Unspeakable Acts”

April 19 Gender, Economy, Sexuality and Prostitution

Discussion of Luise White, The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial

Nairobi

Topic 4: Dutch, French and American Imperialisms in South-East Asia

April 26 European imperialism in South-East Asia: historical overview

Discussion of Ann Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power

Chapters 1-3.

* PROSPECTUS FOR FINAL ESSAY DUE

May 3 French Colonization of Vietnam

American Military Intervention: the Vietnam War

Discussion of Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power Chs. 4-7.

Wrap-up

May 10 Review and discussion of course themes

Oral reports on final essay projects

FINAL ESSAY DUE FRIDAY MAY 14^th at 5 PM.