MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

ENH2800

In other worlds: postcolonial literature

M Ackland

Synopsis This subject is intended to introduce students to postcolonialism as a historical phenomenon and as a dynamic field of contemporary writing and theory. The set texts deal with the Americas, Africa and the Carribean, and Australia and the Pacific region. They promote discussion of processes of inscription, cultural interaction and strategies for dominion, and of how racial and gender stereotypes can be effectively challenged. Recent attempts to portray indigenous or minority groups and the influence of successive waves of imperialism and of aspirations towards self-determination will also be examined. The intersection of postmodernist and postcolonial dilemmas will be a further topic for discussion.

Assessment Tutorial paper and participation (1000 words): 20% + Essay (1500 words): 30% + Essay (3000 words): 50% + Students whose written work and participation are satisfactory will be excused an examination.

Prescribed texts

• Achebe C Things fall apart Heinemann
• Ackland M The Penguin book of nineteenth-century Australian literature Penguin
• Astley T Beachmasters Penguin
• Coetzee J Foe Penguin
• De Groen A The rivers of China Currency
• Kincaid J Lucy New American Library
• Llosa M The storyteller Faber
• Marquez G One hundred years of solitude Picador
• Shakespeare The Tempest Penguin
• Pynchon T The crying of lot 49 Picador
• Rhys J Wide Sargasso Sea Penguin

Recommended texts

• Ashcroft B The empire writes back Allen and Unwin
• Said E Culture and imperialism Vintage
• Williams P and Chrisman L Colonial discourse and post-colonial theory: A reader Harvester/Wheatsheaf