WGST 450 - Postcolonial Women Writers

(Same as SOC 450.) WGST 101 or WMST 101 or SOC 101 or ANTH 102 or HIST 160 or HIST 228 or consent of instructor. This course analyzes postcolonial literature written by women authors of Africa, the Caribbean, India and elsewhere. Specific authors include works by Ama Ata Aido, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Assia Djebar, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Jamaica Kincaid, and Octavia Butler. Students will become familiar with the broader issues of postcolonial studies, as well as how the post-colonial condition is illuminated in women’s literature. Examines the cultural, historical, and geopolitical context that informs each postcolonial work; explores the narratives themes of identity and hybridity, discourses of self and nation, gendered and racialized experience, the politics of motherhood and reproduction, sexual politics, memory, and resistance in both historical terms and in various applications to contemporary contexts. Students will develop an advanced understanding of key concepts in postcolonial theory and feminist studies, and interrogate the concept of the ‘double-colonization’ of women of color. Students will learn to pay special attention to the complex relationship between forms of gender oppression and imperialism (e.g., as analogues of domination, as overlapping techniques of control). This course takes as its premise that knowledge-production about the ‘Other’-both scientific and literary discourses- are central not only to technologies of imperial power and oppression, but also that the writing and reading of “postcolonial” and “feminist” texts offer powerful transformative strategies for opposition and liberation. Letter grade with Pass/No Pass option. (Offered every year.) 3 credits