A Post-Colonial World and Voices From the Margins

Unit 6: A Post-Colonial World and Voices From the Margins

In the 20^th century, we have seen the decline of Empire and the emergence of a new, post-colonial world order. How did these sweeping changes impact the literary landscape of the Modern Period? In this unit, we will examine the legacy of colonization and the emergence of new voices capable of re-writing history and re-defining the destiny and cultural significance of English literature. In the process, we will pay particular attention to the ways in which former subjects have negotiated with English literary conventions in order to “make it new” once more.

Unit 6 Time Advisory close

This unit should take approximately 16 hours to complete.

☐ Subunit 6.1: 4 hours

☐ Subunit 6.2: 4 hours

☐ Subunit 6.3: 4 hours

☐ Subunit 6.4: 4 hours

Unit 6 Learning Outcomes close

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

Define post-colonialism as both a movement in literature and the arts as well as a form of literary and cultural theory and criticism.
Compare and contrast the postcolonial elements that define the works of a range of world authors, including Derek Walcott, Chinua Achebe, Deepika Bahri, W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, E. M. Forster, Salman Rushdie, and Arundhati Roy.

6.1 Derek Walcott and “Language Poised Between Defiance and Translation”

6.1.1 Brief Overview of Post-Colonial Studies

Lecture: Yale University: Dr. Paul Fry’s “Post-Colonial Criticism”

6.1.2 Derek Walcott’s Omeros: Matters of Genre, Tradition, and Perspective

Lecture: BBC: World Book Club—Harriet Gilbert’s Interview with Derek Walcott on December 16, 2008

6.1.3 Selection from Derek Walcott’s Poetry

Reading: The Poetry Foundation: Derek Walcott’s “Becune Point”

6.1.4 Defining Our Terms: “Postcolonial Literature”

Reading: Washington State University: Dr. Paul Brians’ “‘Postcolonial Literature’: Problems with the Term”

6.2 Redefining “The Other” in a Post-Colonial Africa

6.2.1 Re-Contextualizing Conrad in the Post-Colonial World

Reading: Shirley Galloway ‘s “An Inglorious Enterprise: Empire, Ideology and Transformation in Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India”

6.2.2 Exploring the Legacy of Western Colonial Oppression in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Lecture: YouTube: Afrikanews’ “Nigerian Writer Chinua Achebe on CNN’s ‘African Voices’”

6.2.3 A New Hybridity: The Fusion of European and Nigerian Motifs in Things Fall Apart

Reading: Postcolonialweb.org: Melissa Culross’ “Chinua Achebe’s Biography and Style” and “Chinua Achebe & Things Fall Apart”

6.2.4 Post-Modern Terminology: Mimicry, Ambivalence and Hybridity

Reading: Emory University: Dr. Deepika Bahri’s Introduction to “Mimicry, Ambivalence and Hybridity”

6.3 The Irish Question

6.3.1 Overview of Anglo-Irish Relations

Reading: BBC: “The Anglo-Irish War”

6.3.2 The Yeats Legacy: Yeats and Irish Politics

Lecture: Yale University: Dr. Langdon Hammer’s “William Butler Yeats Part 1,” "William Butler Yeats Part 2," and "William Butler Yeats Part 3"

6.3.3 The New Bard: Seamus Heaney, Irish Tradition, and Memory

6.3.4 Politics and Poetics: Heaney and the Place of the Poet in Modern Culture

Web Media: Lannan.org: “Seamus Heaney with Dennis O’Driscoll, Conversation, 1 October 2003”

6.4 East Meets West: Indian Post-Colonial Narratives

6.4.1 History of India’s Colonization

Reading: Victorianweb.org: Dr. David Cody’s “British India” and Dr. George Landow’s “The British East India Company—the Company that Owned a Nation (or Two)”

6.4.2 Gandhi and Non-Violent Resistance to British Colonial Rule

Web Media: Open Culture: Mahatma Gandhi Talks

6.4.3 Excerpts from Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children: Issues of Migration, Homeland, and Post-Colonialist Tensions

Reading: Columbia University: Midnight’s Children Events: “Interview with Salman Rushdie & President Lee Bollinger”

6.4.4 Identity and Boundaries in Midnight’s Children

Reading: Postcolonialweb.org: Sébastien Blache’s “The Dynamic of Representation in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children”

6.4.5 A New English: The Poetics of Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things

Lecture: YouTube: Prague Writers’ Festival’s “Arundhati Roy Reads from God of Small Things”

6.4.6 Post-Colonial Narrative and The God of Small Things

Reading: Postcolonialweb.org: Prasenjit Maiti’s “Credence and Reality: On the Said and the Implied in Postcolonial Narratives—Roy's The God of Small Things”

6.4.7 Recent Developments in the Visual Arts of India

Reading: Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Atteqa Ali’s “Recent Art of India”