Undergraduate Course: Neo-imperialisms (ENLI10331)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | 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 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 (novels, short stories, and poetry) and film from South Africa, Nigeria, India, Britain, the United States, 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 environmental stress, increased people movement, the ¿war on terror¿, the power of international corporations, and the politics of development.
The Colonial Present:
1. Introduction: extract from Derek Gregory, The Colonial Present / Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine
2. J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Environment, Sustainability, and Responsibility:
3. Nadine Gordimer, Get a Life
4. Margaret Atwood, Oryx & Crake
5. Indra Sinha, Animal¿s People
The Postcolonial City:
6. Danny Boyle (dir), Slumdog Millionaire / ¿Kama¿ in Vikram Chandra, Love and Longing in Bombay
7. Mohsin Hamid, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
The 9/11 Wars:
8. Bahman Ghobadi (dir), Turtles Can Fly / Hasan Blassim, The Madman of Freedom Square
9. Brian Turner, Here, Bullet / Selected works from Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak
10. Imtiaz Dharker, The Terrorist at My Table
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 15 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Learning and Teaching Activities |
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
60 %,
Coursework
30 %,
Practical Exam
10 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
One course essay of up to 2,500 words (30% of final mark);
One practical assessment (10%)
and one sit-down exam (75% of final mark). |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
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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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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Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr David Farrier
Tel: (0131 6)50 3607
Email: David.Farrier@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms June Haigh
Tel: (0131 6)50 3620
Email: j.haigh@ed.ac.uk |
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