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 |
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/undergraduate/current/honours |
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 'neo-imperialisms' of the contemporary globalized world. It will include writing and film from and/or about South Africa, Ghana, India, the UK, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 2, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: 30 |
Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Class Delivery Information |
one hour(s) per week for 10 weeks: attendance at Autonomous Learning Group at times to be arranged. |
| Course Start Date |
13/01/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Additional Notes |
|
| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
75 %,
Coursework
25 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours:Minutes |
|
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 2:00 | | |
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.
|
Assessment Information
One course essay of up to 2,500 words (25% of final mark);
and one sit-down exam (75% of final mark). |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
According to Michel Agier, 'the world today is confronted with the sustained evidence of precarious lives'. This course will look at various ways in which life is made fragile and precarious by what might be called the 'neo-imperialisms' of the contemporary globalized world, and will include writing and film from and/or about South Africa, Ghana, India, the UK, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. The emphasis will be on creative responses to oppression and marginalisation¿the role of the imagination (such as constructing fantasies of 'the other') in propagating forms of violence, and also in marking out 'other 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 conservation and environmental stress, increased people movement, the 'war on terror', the power of international corporations, and the postcolonial city. |
| Syllabus |
Seminar Schedule
1. Introduction to the 'colonial present' (selected essays provided by the tutor)
2. J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
3. Aye Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
4. Mahasveta Devi, Imaginary Maps
5. Indra Sinha, Animal's People
6. Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak / Brian Turner, Here, Bullet
7. Bahman Ghobadi (dir), Turtles Can Fly / Hassan Blasim, The Madman OF Freedom Square
8. Essay completion week
9. Imtiaz Dharker, The Terrorist at My Table
10. Nadine Gordimer, Get a Life
11. The postcolonial city: Bombay/Mumbai - Danny Boyle (dir), Slumdog Millionaire/ 'Kama' in Vikram Chandra, Love and Longing in Bombay/ selected essays & extracts provided by the tutor
|
| 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.
--, 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 | Ms Sheila Strathdee
Tel: (0131 6)50 3619
Email: S.Strathdee@ed.ac.uk |
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