106-241 Postcolonial Writing

Note

Available as 106-341 at 3rd-year level.

Credit Points

Coordinator

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

Students study the literary, theoretical and filmic texts of contemporary writers belonging to formerly colonised societies and the postcolonial diaspora, examining such concepts as irony, allegory and magic realism and the uses that postcolonial writers have made of concepts like authenticity, identity, historical revisionism, mimicry and hybridity. They also relate postcolonial texts to formations of colonialism, nationalism, liberalism, neo-colonialism and globalisation. Students completing this subject should be able to show a knowledge of the contemporary debates surrounding the term 'post-colonialism' in literature.

Assessment

Written work of not more than 5000 words.

Prescribed Texts

Course reader available from the department.

• B Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood.
• F Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth. Penguin.
• G Marquez, Innocent Erendira. Picador.
• B Mukerjee, Jasmine. Penguin.
• Mudrooroo Narogin, Master of the Ghost Dreaming. Imprint.
• Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Matigari. Heinemann.
• B Okri, Stars of the New Curfew.
• S Rushdie, Midnight's Children. Picador.
• B Yahp, The Crocodile Fury. Imprint.
• Film: H Kureishi, Sammie and Rosie Get Laid.