Undergraduate Course: Neo-imperialisms (ENLI10331)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | English Literature |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The course will invite students to look at various ways in which life is made fragile and precarious by what might be called the $ùneo-imperialisms&© of the contemporary globalized world. It will include writing and film from and/or about South Africa, Somalia, France, Zanzibar, Britain, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Essential course texts |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 1, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: 30 |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Seminar | | 1-11 | 10:00 - 12:00or 14:00 - 15:50 | | | | |
| First Class |
Week 1, Monday, 10:00 - 12:00, Zone: Central. Room 6.10, David Hume Tower |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
In addition to the skills training common to all English Literature Honours courses (essay writing, independent reading, group discussion, oral presentation, small-group autonomous learning) this course will aim to develop in students the ability to:
a) articulate (in written and oral forms) a considered, informed sense of the breadth and range of postcolonial writing, theory and contexts;
b) evaluate a range of key concepts in postcolonial studies, particularly in terms of their relevance to current neo-imperial contexts and their application to the primary texts;
c) deploy an appropriate critical vocabulary for the discussion of film;
d) demonstrate the ability to work with interdisciplinary material in addition to literature and film, such as theoretical, historical and sociological sources;
e) articulate how their own thinking and research agenda has developed;
f) reflect constructively on good learning practice.
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Assessment Information
| One semester essay of up to 2,500 words (25% of final mark) and one take-home exam essay of no more than 3,000 words (75% of final mark). |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
This course will look at various ways in which life is made fragile and precarious by what might be called the $ùneo-imperialisms&© of the contemporary globalized world, and will include writing and film from and/or about South Africa, Somalia, France, Zanzibar, Britain, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The emphasis will be on creative responses to oppression and marginalisation$ûthe role of the imagination (such as constructing fantasies of $ùthe other&©) in propagating forms of violence, and also in marking out $ùother passages&© (in Judith Butler&©s words) out of cycles of oppression and injury. In particular, the course will ask students to consider the extent to which the various positions and theories offered by postcolonial studies can provide a viable frame for thinking about representations of current or recent geopolitical situations, such as environmental stress, civil conflicts, increased people movement, the $ùwar on terror&©, the power of international corporations, and the politics of development aid. |
| Syllabus |
Seminar Schedule
1. Introduction
2. J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)
3. Michael Ondaatje, Anil&©s Ghost (2000)
4. Michael Haneke (dir), Code Unknown (2000)
5. Abdulrazak Gurnah, By the Sea (2001)
6. Bahman Ghobadi (dir), Turtles Can Fly (2005)
7. Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak (2007) / Brian Turner, Here, Bullet (2007)
8. Essay completion week
9. Kamila Shamsi, Burnt Shadows (2009)
10. Nuruddin Farah, Gifts (1993)
11. Indra Sinha, Animal&©s People (2007)
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Background Bibliography
Agamben, Giorgio, State of Exception. Trans. Kevin Attell. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Bauman, Zygmunt, Wasted Lives: Modernity and its Outcasts. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004.
Benhabib, Seyla, The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents and Citizens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004.
Butler, Judith, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London and New York: Verso, 2004.
Farrier, David, Postcolonial Asylum: Seeking Sanctuary Before the Law. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2011.
Gilroy, Paul, After Empire: Melancholia or Convivial Culture? London and New York: Routledge, 2004.
Huggan, Graham and Helen Tiffin, Postcolonial Ecocriticism. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.
Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri, Empire. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 2000.
$û, Multitude. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2004.
Loomba, Ania, et.al., (eds.) Postcolonial Studies and Beyond. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005.
McLeod, John (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2007.
Wilson, Janet, et.al. (eds.) Rerouting the Postcolonial: New Direction for the New Millenium. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
200 hours. |
| Keywords | Postcolonial, global, neo-imperialism, literature, film. |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr David Farrier
Tel: (0131 6)50 3607
Email: David.Farrier@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Catherine Williamson
Tel: (0131 6)50 3620
Email: Catherine.Williamson@ed.ac.uk |
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© Copyright 2011 The University of Edinburgh - 16 January 2012 6:07 am
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