This course explores how literature and culture represent the histories, conflicts, and continuing consequences of colonialism. Through fiction, poetry, political writing, short stories, and dramatic performance from the Caribbean, Africa, India, and the Pacific, we will examine how writers and thinkers have represented colonial power, revolution and violence, language and identity, migration, environmental crisis, and the possibilities and limits of decolonisation.
In addition to our primary texts, we will encounter some of the major ideas and debates in postcolonial thought. Particular attention will be given to questions of power and knowledge; competing ways of understanding history and political change; voice, mediation, and the problem of speaking for others; and the relationship between colonial histories and contemporary environmental crises. The course asks what literature and cultural expression can reveal about colonial and postcolonial worlds, and how they might help us imagine those worlds differently.
After active participation in the course, students should be able to
- Understand key concepts and arguments in the field of postcolonial studies and recognize their relevance in discussions of diverse texts;
- Examine and discuss a selection of literary texts and cultural productions from a postcolonial perspective based on relevant research and analysis;
- Construct and express their own arguments on critical issues in postcolonial studies while engaging with the viewpoints of others;
- Demonstrate an awareness of the relationship between literary and cultural productions and diverse histories of colonialism, decolonization, and neocolonialism;
- Write effective argumentative essays and communicate their ideas clearly in class and online forums while adhering to ethical standards of academic conduct.
Active participation 10%
Leading a discussion and discussion report 20%
Mid-term essay (approx. 1200 words) 25%
Annotated Biography 5%
Final Essay 40%
Primary readings will include the following fictional and nonfictional texts and productions from the Caribbean, Africa, India, and Oceania. Students should acquire the two novels, The Kingdom of this World and Gun Island by themselves. The other texts are accessible online in the HKU Library or will be provided on Moodle.
- Carpentier, Alejo. The Kingdom of this World. 1949. Translated by Pablo Medina, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. (Novel)
- Senior, Olive. Gardening in the Tropics. Bloodaxe Books, 1995. (Selected poems; e-book, republished 2005, accessible at HKU Library)
- Brazier, Chris, editor. Ten Years of the Caine Prize for African Writing. New Internationalist, 2009. (Selected short stories, e-book accessible at HKU Library)
- Maathai, Wangari. Unbowed: One Woman’s Story. William Heinemann, 2007. (Memoir; extracts)
- Roy, Arundhati. Walking with the Comrades. Kamasa, 2010 (Essay; accessible marxist.org)
- Ghosh Amitav. Gun Island. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019. (Novel; other editions, including e-book, acceptable)
- Hereniko, Vilsoni. Moana: The Rising of the Sea. The University of the South Pacific, 2013; and Moana Rua: The Rising of the Sea. The University of the South Pacific, 2015. (Performances; videos accessible online at HKU Library)
- Teaiwa, Katerina Martina. Consuming Ocean Island: Stories of People and Phosphate from Banaba. Indiana University Press, 2015. (Nonfiction; extracts; e-book accessible at HKU Library)
The primary readings will be discussed in dialog with a selection of representative theoretical and critical texts.