Seminar (SEM)

• TOPIC: Postcolonial Theory
• Above class meets with a section of INTL-I 506
• Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

Topic: Postcolonial theory

Topic: POSTCOLONIAL THEORY. The term "post-colonialism" emerged in the 1980s: it signified an impulse among scholars to periodize history and to identify colonialism as central to an understanding of international/global configurations of power. "Post-colonialism" is less a unified body of interpretive practices than a series of engagements with concepts such as colonialism, the state, nationalism, colonial and native subjectivity, dependency and uneven development, and subalternity. The intellectual and disciplinary reach of post-colonialism has included Literary Studies, Anthropology, International Relations, Political Theory, History, and Geography, spanning studies of past and present nation-states to colonial discourse analysis and representation. In this course, we will investigate the uses of post-colonial theory as a primary intellectual framework to analyze colonial relationships and their political and cultural legacies. Our discussions will take up some of the seminal issues which define the history of post-colonial studies, such as the status of the subaltern and the challenges of archiving subaltern consciousness, the relationship between colonialism and the intimate sphere of domesticity and desire, political violence and contemporary constructions of terrorism, and continuities and ruptures between formal colonialism and newer forms of imperialism. While I am still finalizing our readings for the course, they will combine works by foundational figures in the field (Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Ranajit Guha, Gayatri Spivak) and more recent iterations of theory (Eqbal Ahmad, Ann Laura Stoler, Lila Abu-Lughod). Students should expect to take two exams, write a 10 page seminar paper broken into preliminary research stages, and participate in class discussion. Graduate students will be expected to write a longer seminar paper and complete additional readings.