EN3262 Postmodernism and Postcoloniality

READING LIST

Author, title, edition

ISBN

Publisher

Jean Rhys (1966) Wide Sargasso Sea , rpt. 2001

0140818030 978-0140818031

Penguin

Gabriel García Márquez (1967) One Hundred Years of Solitude (tr. 1970), rpt. 2000

014118499X

978-0141184999

Penguin

Salman Rushdie (1983) Shame , rpt. 2008

0812976703

978-0812976700

Random House

J. M. Coetzee (1986) Foe, rpt. 2001

014029953X

978-0140299533

Penguin

Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1997) House of Glass

0140256792

978-0140256796

Penguin

Arun Kolatkar (1976) Jejuri, (rpt. 2005)

ASIN: B002B6OARU

. New York Review of Books

SECONDARY READING

[The list directs attention to some of the more prominent discussions of a general kind relating to the postcolonial and the postmodern. Students are expected to search out material on individual authors independently.]

Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths & Helen Tiffin (eds) The Post-Colonial Studies Reader (London & New York: Routledge, 1995)

Elleke Boehmer Colonial and Postcolonial Literature (Oxford & New York: OUP, 1995)

Diana Brydon (ed), Postcolonialism: Critical concepts in literary and cultural studies (London & New York: Routledge, 2000), 5 vols.

Thomas Docherty (ed) Postmodernism: A Reader (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993)

D. T. Goldberg & A. Quayson (eds.), Relocating Postcolonialism (Blackwell, 2001)

David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989)

Jean François Lyotard The Postmodern Condition (1979, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984)

Bart Moore-Gilbert, Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics (London: Verso, 1997)

Ismail Talib, The Language of Postcolonial Literatures: An Introduction (London: Routledge, 2002)

Robert C. Young, Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (Blackwell, 2002)

Secondary Reading: Articles

Ahmed, Aijaz. `Jameson's Rhetoric of Otherness & the "National Allegory"', Social Text 17 (Fall 1987).

Bhabha, Homi. `"Race", Time & the Revision of Modernity', The Oxford Literary Review, 13 (1991): 193-219.

During, Simon. `Postmodernism or Postcolonialism?', Landfall, 39: 3 (Sept. 1985): 366-80.

During Simon, “Postcolonialism and globalisation: a dialectical relation after all?” Postcolonial Studies 1: 1 (1998): 31-47.

Jameson, Fredric. `Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Corporations', Social Text 15 (Fall 1986): 65-88.

Jameson, Fredric. `Third World Literary & Cultural Criticism', South Atlantic Quarterly, 87: 1 (1988).

Kwame, A. A., `Is the Post- in Postmodernism the Post- in Postcolonial?', Critical Inquiry 17 (Win. 1991): 336-57.

Moore-Gilbert, Bart, “Postcolonialism: between nationalism and globalisation? A response to Simon During”, Postcolonial Studies 1:1 (1998): 49-65.

Mukherjee, Arun P., `Whose Post-Colonialism and Whose Postmodernism?', World Literature Written in English, 30: 2 (1990): 1-9.

Sangari, Kum Kum. `The Politics of the Possible', Cultural Critique, 7 (Fall 1987): 157-86

Tiffin, Helen. `Post-colonialism, Post-modernism & the Rehabilitation of Post-colonial History', Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 23: 1 (1988): 169-81.

Assessment

Tutorial/Seminar Presentation (oral presentation 10 mins. & write-up)	10%
Class test: week 7 (60 mins)	30%
Long essay: submission by end of week 12 (max. length: 2k)	30%
Independent project: submission by end of week 13 (max. length: 2k)	30%
Total CA: 100%	100%

Suggestions concerning Long Essay and Independent Project

LONG ESSAY

Choose one text from the module syllabus and (at least) one text from outside the syllabus.
You can select the out-side-the-syllabus text from any genre, but note that it is generally easier to compare texts within the same genre.
Choosing another text by an author in the syllabus as your second text is one way of tackling the issue of choice for the outside-the-syllabus text. (Thus for example, 2 Rushdie texts, or 2 Coetzee texts, or comparing Kolatkar with say Arthur Yap, or comparing Rushdie with Alfred Yuson, or comparing Marquez with another magical realist author such as Isabel Allende or Carlos Fuentes or .)
Choosing another author from the same period and genre who writes from a similar or comparable predicament is another way of choosing your texts.
The overall logic of the essay should be controlled by how you find useful handles on the (partial) overlap between postcolonial and postmodern discourses through a comparison between the two texts.
The essay should focus on how the two texts throw light on the relation between postcolonial and postmodern mindsets, cultural predicaments and/or writing strategies.

INDEPENDENT PROJECT

Choose at least two (maximum three) texts outside the syllabus. Any one or two genres will do. Try, as far as possible, to select texts that are from the same genre (although there might be arguments for which comparisons across genres are also possible). As above, choosing two (or more) texts from the same period and genre, written from a similar or comparable predicament, is a viable way of choosing your texts. Thus, for example, when it comes to fiction from Africa, Gordimer can be readily compared with say Bessie Head or Doris Lessing; or.

EXAMPLES of authors outside the syllabus who can provide apt texts for either the essay or the project report: Note that there are many other authors apt for this purpose.

Fiction: Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, V.S. Naipaul, Hanif Kureishi (UK); Buchi Emecheta, Nadine Gordimer, Doris Lessing, Ngugi wa' Thiong'o, Ben Okri (Africa); Michael Ondaatje (N. America); Lee Kok Liang, Nick Joaquin, Alfred Yuson, Orhan Pamuk (Asia).

Drama: Athol Fugard, Wole Soyinka (Africa); Nick Joaquin (Asia).

Poetry: Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite (Caribbean); Pablo Neruda (S. America); Agha Shahid Ali, Nourbese Philip (N. America); David Dabydeen (UK); Arthur Yap, Eric Gamalinda (Asia).

The point of both assignments is to show initiative in your choice of authors and arguments. Treat the list above simply as a pointer in a direction you will want to explore on your own.

Framing questions (for assignments)

1 What is the applicability of terms like postmodern and postcolonial? What are their limits?

2 How do the terms relate to issues of literary writing, genres, style, technique?

3 What are the implications for culture of descriptions which include the post-colonial or the post-modern as features of writing?

3 How does the “post-” as a phenomenon relate to what preceded it?

4 What is the relation between race, colonialism, and post-coloniality?

5 How does the economic, political, cultural as well as linguistic impact of colonialism affect and shape the post-colonial?

6 What is the relation between modernity and modernism in the West and its influence and consequences for the rest of the world?

7 How does displacement and diaspora affect identity at the individual and communal levels?

8 How do the postcolonial and the postmodern interact in specific situations?

9 How do issues affecting gender figure in the post-colonial/post-modern

10 Are post-colonial/post-modern global phenomena?

11 In what sense are the values and preoccupations of contemporary societies shaped or influenced by the post-colonial or the post-modern?

12 What are the ways out of the “post-” phenomenon, for individuals and for cultures?

Schedule
Week	Starting	Lec	Lecture Topic	Tut. No.	Presentation dates		Presentation Topic
Week	Starting	Lec	Lecture Topic	Tut. No.	T1-Tue, T2-Wed	Fri, T3	Presentation Topic
Orientation	03 Aug
1	10 Aug	1	Colonialism and Postcoloniality
2	17 Aug	2	Modernism and Postmodernity
3	24 Aug	3	Postmodernity/Rhys	1	25/6 Aug	28 Aug	1. Rhys
4	31 Aug	4	Rhys	2	1/2 Sep		2. Rhys/Márquez
5	07 Sep	5	Márquez	3	8/9 Sept	4 Sep	3. Márquez
6	14 Sep	6	Márquez/Rushdie	4	15/16 Sept	11 Sep	4.Rushdie
Sat 19 Sep to Sun 27 Sep Recess Week
7	28 Sep		Class test	(during the 1st 50 mins of the lecture slot)
7	28 Sep		Comments on test	5	29/30 Sep	2 Oct	5. Rushdie/Coetzee
8	05 Oct	7	Rushdie [no lecture - E-learning wk]	6	6/7 Oct	9 Oct	6.Coetzee
9	12 Oct	8	Coetzee	7	13/14 Oct	16 Oct	7. Pramoedya
10	19 Oct	9	Coetzee/Pramoedya	8	20/21 Oct	23 Oct	8. Pramoedya/Kolatkar
11	26 Oct	10	Pramoedya/Kolatkar	9	27/28 Oct	30 Oct	9. Kolatkar
12	02 Nov	11	Kolatkar	10	3/4 Nov	6 Nov	10. Comparative
12	02 Nov	Term Paper due by Monday 5pm
13	09 Nov	12	Comparative & Revision
	09 Nov	Project report due by Monday 5pm [13 Nov, as originally said on this web-site, was an error! Mea culpa, so people who wrote to that deadline can submit by 13 Nov.]
14	Reading Week
15-17	21 Nov to 05 Dec: Exams

Tut.	Topic	Presentation Schedule (as of 26 August)
Tut.	Topic	Tuesday	DW1	Wednesday	DW2	Friday	DW3

1	Rhys	25 Aug	Rachel Kwan, Lo Hui Lin	26 Aug	Bibi Fahiman bte Umar	28 Aug	Lin Wanli Trina
2	Rhys/Márquez	1 Sep	Song Shanli Moretta, Tan Wun Chuan Joel	2 Sep	Lau Quan Han, Tan Wan Yee Jacqueline	4 Sep	Neo Kher Bing Anita, Timothy Lin Siew Cheng
3	Márquez	8 Sep	Lim Qianru Charlene, Wong Pei Yee	9 Sep	Hong Xin Yin, Tan Thuan Thow Thomas	11Sep	Huan Jianliang Daniel, Teo Shi Ping Esther
4	Rushdie	15 Sep	Kasthuri Mahanthran, Toh Hui Xian Julianne	16 Sept	Amita Rachel Pagolu, Chen Huimin Sharon	18 Sep	Chong Lingyi, Victoria Elizabeth Haldane
		19-27 Sep	RECESS
5	Rushdie/Coetzee	29 Sep	Lau Bee Juan, Peck Xin Hui	30 Sept	Aw Yong Qing, Huang Jianwei	2 Oct	Andrea Li Shu Qi, Choe Kaixin Celine
6	Coetzee	6 Oct	Koh Beng Huat Bernard, Pua Xin Yi Phoebe	7 Oct	Francisco Andrea Kirsten, Heng Meiyan Belinda	9 Oct	Ang Su-Fern Kelly, Kwan Wei Xun Vincent
7	Pramoedya	13 Oct	Jillian Joyce Ong Tan, Lee Ying Mindy	14 Oct		16 Oct	Ambreen Zafar Momin, Venisa Bridget Nathan
8	Pramoedya/Kolatkar	20 Oct	Jennifer Anne Champion, Gomes Christel Geralyn	21 Oct		23 Oct	Nicole Samantha Ng Seow Wei, Zou En Samuel
9	Kolatkar	27 Oct	Tham Zen Teng, Yeo Yunjie Vanna	28 Oct	Chng Jia Min, Nurul Sufina bte Adam	30 Oct	Teo Yaling
10	Comparative	3 Nov	Brintha Anne Loganathan, Shalini Sukumaran	4 Nov		6 Nov	Stephanie Jane Kitching