English 288D: Colonialism and Postcolonialism (20th C)
Wollaeger English 288D, Fall 1996

M 3:10-5:40

Office Hours: W 1-3, and by appt. in Benson 414

Phone: 2-6527 (Dori Mikus, my secretary)

E-mail: wollaege@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
Course Goals: This is a course in 20th-c British fiction in which "British" is broadly construed to include not only canonical English novels but also Anglo-Irish fiction, African and Caribbean novels written in English, and Anglo-Indian fiction. We will explore some of the cultural permutations of Englishness left in the wake of the spread of English as a literary language.

Useful Web Links:

Postcolonial Links: Voice of the Shuttle
Edward Said: Bibliography


Course requirements: regular reading and intensive participation in class discussions are essential of course, but your writing will be equally important. From time to time we'll do some writing in class, and we'll also meet for part of some classes in the Garland Computer Lab, where we'll use the Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment (DIWE) for some collaborative work. In one form or another, you will run all of your writing through peer review.

Three essays. First, a short essay (no more than 5 pages) in which you establish some initial connections among our early reading and undertake some close reading--due September 26. Second, a medium-length paper (6-8 pages), which can include materials from the first essay--due October 24. Third, a seminar paper (15-20 pages), which can include materials from the first two essays while extending the discussion into some of our later reading--due December 16.
A prospectus: for the seminar paper, due November 7.
Oral Presentations: on your seminar paper, spread over the last three class meetings.
Computer-mediated discussion: given that we meet only once a week, and given that I'd like you to be thinking about the course whenever you're awake (no one's taking anything else, right?), we'll extend the class discussion from week to week using either DIWE or a Newsgroup on the Web.

Texts

Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Ngugi, A Grain of Wheat
Ashcroft, et al, The Post-Colonial Studies Reader
Rushdie, Midnight's Children
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
El Sadaawi, Woman at Point Zero
Emecheta, Second Class Citizen
Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá
Forster, A Passage to India
Woolf, The Voyage Out
Kincaid, Annie John and A Small Place
Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians

M Sept. 2: Introduction: PSR, General Introduction (plus p. 7); essays 1 (Lamming), 7 (Achebe, plus introduction to section), 12 (Said)

M Sept. 9: Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá; Conrad, Heart of Darkness (at least parts one and two); PSR, essay 56 (Fanon)

M Sept.16: Conrad, Heart of Darkness (finish), plus the Achebe article on Conrad, pp. 251-62 in the Norton Critical Edition. Woolf, The Voyage Out (through chapter 13)

M Sept.23: Woolf, The Voyage Out (finish); PSR, essay 45 (Mohanty)

Th Sept.26: Essay 1 due (in my mailbox, third floor Benson Hall, by 4 pm)

M Sept.30: Achebe, Things Fall Apart; PSR, essays 23 (Fanon) and 43 (Peterson)

M Oct. 7: Ngugi, A Grain of Wheat; PSR, essays 49 (Ngugi), 50 (Kachru), and 24 (Amuta)

M Oct. 14: Emecheta, Second Class Citizen; PSR, essay 8 (Larson)

M Oct.21: Joyce, Portrait; PSR, essay 29 (Cairns and Richards) Th Oct.24: Essay 2 due (in my mailbox, third floor Benson Hall, by 4 pm)

M Oct.28: Re-Joyce

M Nov. 4: Forter, A Passage to India; PSR, essay 75 (Macaulay)

M Nov. 11: Rushdie, Midnight's Children (thru p. 283); PSR. essay 27 (Brennan)

Th Nov. 14: Prospectus due (2-3 pages max)

M Nov.18: Rushdie, Midnight's Children (finish); PSR, essay 68 (Chakrabarty)
Oral Presentations of Final Essay

Thanksgiving Break
 

M Dec. 2: El Sadaawi, Woman at Point Zero; PSR, essays, 3 (Spivak),4 (Bhabha), and 5 (Parry)
Oral Presentations of Final Essay

M Dec 9: Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians; PSR, essays 18 (Appiah) and 19 (During)
Oral Presentations of Final Essay
(Un)-Wrapping It Up