Courses

This course will examine the major debate, contested genealogies, epistemic and political interventions, and possible futures of the body of writing that has come to be known as postcolonial theory, in relation to histories and practices of decolonization. We will examine the relationships between postcolonial theory and other theoretical formations, including poststructuralism, feminism, environmentalism, Marxism, Third Worldism, and the decolonial. We will also consider what counts as “theory” in postcolonial theory: in what ways have novels, memoirs, or revolutionary manifestos, for example, offered seminal, generalizable statements about the colonial and postcolonial condition? How can we understand the relationship between the rise of postcolonial studies in the United States and the role of the U.S. in the post-Cold War era? How do postcolonial theory and its insights about European imperialism contribute to analyses of mid-twentieth century decolonization, contemporary globalization, and "decolonial" discourse in the present?