5:45P-7:00P TR (30) 3 cr

TOPIC: POST-COLONIAL WOMEN'S WRITING

This course will focus on women's writing as it addresses the
histories of colonialism, decolonization, as well as emerging new
forms of (neo)colonial domination.   Thus our approach to
"post-colonial" literature begins with the assumption that
colonialism is not simply over and done with, an experience
neatly "post" or past; rather, as the very term "post-COLONIAL"
implies, what comes AFTER colonialism is STILL DEFINED BY IT.=20
The premise of this class, in short, is that the centuries-long
history of Europe's and America's annexations of foreign peoples
and territories represents a legacy that is far from resolved.=20
In this context, we will be asking questions such as these: How
does the continuing force of colonial history (as something
not-simply-past) effect the narrative form of post-colonial
women's writing?  For example, where does one begin or end
narrating a history that refuses to sit still, that continuously
spills over into the present moment?  To what extent has a
Euro-American feminist tradition, based on such values as
progress (development), individual self-realization, and national
allegiance been adopted by post-colonial women writers?  To what
extent has the historical experience of colonization led them to
question or challenge this tradition, and what alternatives
emerge in their writing?

Reading for the course will include a selection of commentaries
and critical essays by Anne McClintock, Hortense Spillers, Jenny
Sharpe, Gloria Anzaldua, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Caren Kaplan, and
Inderpal Grewal, among others, as well as the following still
tentative list of primary materials:  Etel Adnan, SITT MARIE
ROSE, Octavia Butler, KINDRED, TsiTsi Dangaremba, NERVOUS
CONDITIONS, Buchi Emecheta, THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD, Jessica
Hagedorn, DOGEATERS, Jamaica Kincaid, LUCY, Leslie Marmon Silko,
ALMANAC OF THE DEAD.

Work for the course will likely consist of an initial short (3-4
page) paper; a longer (6-8 page) essay; a midterm and a final
exam.  All class members will be expected to participate actively
in discussion through out the term.=20