(Dis)inheriting Power: Literature and the Legacies of Colonialism

Semester and Year	FA 2012
Course Number	IDSEM-UG1723
Section	001
Instructor	Laurie R. Lambert
Days	Tue,Thu
Time	4:55 PM - 6:10 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement	HUM, GLOBAL

Description

This course investigates colonialism and its cultural legacies. We will examine texts situated in a variety of international locations including Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, China, New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica, and the U.S. Students will have the opportunity to think about how colonial power has shaped both the way we see the world and the way we read literature today. Tackling issues pertaining to gender and sexuality, slavery and memory, religion and cultural identity, and space and privilege, we will probe the various relationships to power that postcolonial writers inhabit. What are the tensions that arise between the First and Third Worlds, between the North and the South, and the East and the West? How and why were these geographic distinctions invented? Readings to include E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India , Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea , Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children , and J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace .

Syllabus

IDSEM-UG1723

Course Type

Interdisciplinary Seminars (IDSEM-UG)