English 314: Postcolonial Literature
Wagner College
Spring 2004
Pranav Jani
www.wagner.edu/faculty/users/pjani
In this introductory course in postcolonial literature, we will read and discuss novels, short stories, memoirs, poetry, essays and film from former British colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, as well as from the postcolonial diaspora. Emphasis will be placed on the common experience of a “postcolonial condition” across various regions, even as we acknowledge their specific historical conditions. The course will give students of postcolonial literature grounding in some key themes in the field, including: imperialism and its “civilizing mission,” the incomplete emancipation brought about by independence, whether in terms of class, gender, or ethnic equality, the complex racial/cultural situation of the indigenous, English-educated elite, the postmodern moment of postcolonial literature, and the impact of migration and globalization on the postcolonial subject.
Required Texts:
Naipaul, V.S. A Bend in the River
Ross, Robert, ed. Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction in English (Reader)
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things
Participation: 20%
6 Response Papers (1-2 pages) 50%
Final Project 30%
Th 1/22 Introduction
T 1/27 J.M. Coetzee, “The Magistrate” (Reader)
Bessie Head, “The Coming of the Christ-Child” (Reader)
Chinua Achebe, “The Sacrificial Egg” (Reader)
Th 1/29 NO CLASS
T 2/3 Katherine Mansfield, “The Woman At the Store” (Reader)
Mulk Raj Anand, “The Gold Watch” (Reader)
Henry Lawson, “The Drover’s Wife” (Reader)
Th 2/4 Doris Lessing, “A Letter From Home” (Reader)
Olive Schreiner, “A Boer Wedding” (Reader)
Alex La Guma, “A Matter of Taste” (Reader)
T 2/10 R.K. Narayan, “A Horse and Two Goats” (Reader)
Ruth Praver Jhabvala, “An Experience of India” (Reader)
Th 2/12 Wes Cecil, Pranav Jani, Stacy Takacs, “India Is(n’t)” (handout)
Pranav Jani and Mytheli Sreenivas, “Anticolonial Struggle in South Asia” (draft)
Benedict Anderson, from introduction to Imagined Communities:
http://www.nationalismproject.org/what/anderson.htm
T 2/17 Ama Ata Aidoo, “For Whom Things Did Not Change” (handout)
Saadat Hasan Manto, “Toba Tek Singh” (handout)
Th 2/19 Ben Okri, from the Famished Road (Reader)
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, “The Testimony of Kihaahu wa Gatheeca” (Reader)
Bapsi Sidhwa, “Ranna’s Story” (Reader)
Weeks 6-7: Postcolonial Crises
T 2/24 V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
Th 2/26 Naipaul,
Bend
T 3/2 Naipaul, Bend
Th 3/4 Naipaul, Bend
Week 8-9: Transnationalisms
T 3/9 Bharati Mukherjee, “Burned Lives” (Reader)
Chitra Divakaruni, “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs” (Reader)
Th 3/11 Rohinton Mistry, “Swimming Lessons” (Reader)
T 3/23 Film: Chutney Popcorn
Th 3/25 Hanif Kureishi, “My Son the Fanatic” (Reader)
Rushdie, “The Angel Azraeel” (Reader)
T 3/30 Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Th 4/1 Roy,
God
T 4/6 NO CLASSES
T 4/8 Roy,
God
Roy, “Confronting Empire” (weblink)
Th 4/22 Khedairi,
A Sky
T 4/27 Khedairi, A Sky
Th 4/28 Film: TBA
T 5/4 White House, “The National Security Strategy of the United States” (weblink)
FINAL ESSAY: Due May 11, 12 noon, to pjani@wagner.edu as MS Word attachment