106-459 Postcolonial Writing and Theory

Formerly available as 106-122. Students who have completed 106-122 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth year honours in English or creative writing.

In this subject students study how postcolonial writers have used the space of literature and theory to reflect on the power relations that currently exist between nations and communities belonging to the 'first' and 'third' worlds, or what is sometimes now called the 'North' and 'South'. They also explore the role that writing itself has played in destroying and reconstituting lives disrupted by the growth of mass tourism, apartheid and other forms of racism, religious intolerance, free-market trade, transnationalism, migration and exile. On successful completion of the subject, students will be able to produce critical readings of a wide range of recently published literary and theoretical texts dealing with postcolonial themes. They will also have an understanding of some of the key theoretical concepts being deployed by prominent postcolonial scholars to produce critical accounts of neo-colonialism and globalisation.

• be able to apply research skills and critical methods to a field of inquiry;

• develop persuasive arguments on a given topic;

• communicate oral and written arguments and ideas effectively and articulately.

An essay of 4000 words 90% (due at the end of semester) and seminar participation and classpaper presentation of 1000 words 10%.

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.

• J Coetzee, Disgrace. Secker & Marburg.
• B Hooks, Bone Black: Memories of a Girlhood. Henry Holt.
• J Kincaid, A Small Place. Virago.
• T Morrison, The Bluest Eye. Virago.
• R Young, Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction.