Fall 1998	Anuradha Dingwaney Needham
English 406	109 Rice Hall
Tu,Th 1:30-2:45	Office hours: Tu,Th 10:00-11:00;
	12:30-1:00 & by appt.
	Phone: 775-8653 (office) 774-1230 (home)

In this seminar, we will examine a range of theoretical/critical positions and elaborations that are often mustered under the rubric of postcolonial theory and practice. Specifically, we will focus at some length on those that address and analyze the questions (and place) of identity, history, nation, and gender. We will also examine the significance of poststructuralist theory and postmodernism for our understanding of postcolonial theory and practice. At all times, our discussions will attend not only to the subjects (and contents) of these theories and their elaborations, but also to the rhetoric of their arguments -- how they say what they say, to what ends, with what audiences in mind, as well as how they position themselves vis-à-vis these subjects, and finally what are the bases for their authority.

Texts:

Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture

Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti, and Ella Shohat, Eds. Dangerous Liaisons:

Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspectives

Edward Said, Orientalism

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Outside in the Teaching Machine and The Post-Colonial Critic

In addition, I have put a couple of anthologies and several journals containing essays we will be reading in the course of this seminar on reserve in the Library. A list of these is attached to this syllabus.

Tentative Schedule of Readings

I have organized the readings around clusters of essays or chapters in books that overlap with each other, but can also be differentiated on the bases of their primary focus and interests. Within each cluster, moreover, each essay has its own take on a given issue or set of issues. It goes without saying that this is not the only way in which these essays or chapters can be organized and read; rather the groupings themselves can (and I hope will) be a matter for discussion.

Sept.3:

Introduction: discussion of readings, procedures, requirements.

Sept. 8, 10, 15, 17:

Background (Ania Loomba and Leela Gandhi);

 

Preliminary discussion of terms, concepts, theoretical/methodological procedures and their applications (Edward Said, Orientalism and "Intellectuals" [on reserve]; Chandra T. Mohanty "Under Western Eyes" [Dangerous]; Gauri Viswanathan "Currying Favor" [Dangerous]

Sept. 22, 24:

Terms, concepts, theoretical/methodological procedures: Interrogations and specifications of some limits (Anne McClintock, Ella Shohat, and Vijay Misra and Bob Hodge [on reserve])

Sept. 29; Oct. 1,6,8,13,15:

Institutionalization of a "new" field of knowledge: possibilities and limits (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Marginality in the Teaching Machine," "Politics of Translation," "Scattered Speculations on the Question of Cultural Studies" [all from Outside] and "Teaching for the Times" [Dangerous]; Aijaz Ahmad, pp. 1-94; Arif Dirlik [Dangerous]

Oct. 15:

Paper 1 Due / Fall Break

Oct. 27, 29:

(Dis-)engagements with other "posts" (Spivak, "The Post-Modern Condition"; "The New Historicism" [both in Post-Colonial Critic]; Kum Kum Sangari [on reserve]; Kwame Anthony Appiah [Dangerous]; Gyan Prakash [Dangerous]; S.P. Mohanty [on reserve])

 

Nov. 3,5,10,12,17,19,24

and Dec. 1,3:

 

Questions (and place) of Nation, Identity, Gender, Agency, and Location.

-- (McClintock, "No Longer"; Hazel Carby, Ann Stoler, bell hooks [all from Dangerous])

-- (Benita Parry, "2 Cheers for Nativism" [on reserve]; Neil Lazarus [on reserve]; Tim Brennan [on reserve])

-- (Abdul JanMohamed, Parry ["Problems"], Radhakrishnan, and Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" [all on reserve])

-- (Homi K. Bhabha, Chs. 3-6 in Location)

-- (Spivak, "In a Word"; "Problems of Cultural Self-Representation," "Postmarked Calcutta," "Questions of Multi-Culturalism" [all from Post-Colonial Critic])

Dec. 8,10:

Wrap-up; Evaluation.

Requirements

Since this is a discussion-centered course, it is imperative that you keep up with the reading and attend class regularly. In addition, you'll break up into groups that will be responsible for initiating the discussion for each class.

You will write two 12-15 page papers, which will be due on October 15 and December 13 respectively. Each paper should engage lucidly and thoughtfully with a subject / issue / problem of you choice, the evidence for which could derive from our readings, but need not be restricted to them. The paper should be framed as an argument, its claims carefully defined and elucidated. Finally, it should reflect critically on its argument, and chosen method (or methods) of analyses. I will be happy to discuss your topics with you, point out other resources than those we'll look at, and read first drafts. You may, if you wish, rewrite the first paper; the same, however, is not possible for the second. Unsolicited, unexcused late submissions will be penalized by a decrease by one step in your grade (e.g., B+ to B) for each day it is late.

Grading

Paper 1	35%
Paper 2	35%
Class participation	30%

 

You must complete all written assignments, and attend classes regularly in order to be assigned a grade in this course.

List of Books and Essays put on reserve

Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures

 

Tim Brennan, "Cosmopolitans and Celebrities." Race and Class 31.1

 

Abdul JanMohamed, "The Economy of Manicliean Allegory: The Function of Racial Difference in Colonialist Literature," Critical Inquiry 12.1 (1985)

 

Neil Lazarus, "National Consciousness and Intellectualism." Colonial Discourse / Postcolonial Theory Eds. Francis Barker, Peter Hulme, and Margaret Iverson.

 

Ania Loomba, "Overworlding the 'Third World'" Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Eds. Williams and Chrisman

 

Anne McClintock "The Angel of Progrss: Pitfalls of the Term 'Post-Colonial'" Social Text 31/32

 

Vijay Mishra and Bob Hodge, "What is Post(-)Colonialism?" Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader Eds. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman

 

S.P. Mohanty. "Us and Them: The Philosophical Basis of Political Criticism." Yale Journal of Criticism

 

Benita Parry, "Resistance Theory / Theorizing Resistance." "Two Cheers for Nativism." Colonial Discourse / Postcolonial Theory. Eds. Francis Barker, Peter Hulme, and Margaret Iverson.

 

----- "Problems in Current Theories of Colonial Discourse" (xerox)

 

R. RadhaKrishnan, "Postcoloniality and the Boundaries of Identity" Callaloo 16.4

 

Edward Said, "Intellectuals in the Postcolonial World." Salmagundi 70/71

 

Kumkum Sangari, "The Politics of the Possible." Minority Discourse. Eds. Abdul Jan Mohamed and David Lloyd.

 

Ella Shohat, "Notes on the 'Post-colonial.'" Social Text 31/32

 

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Eds. Williams and Chrisman.