Undoing Empire: Introduction to Postcolonial Writing and Art

This course introduces students to the histories and politics of postcolonial writing and art. By tracing the genealogies of writing and art produced in the aftermath of colonialism, this course will explore how writers, artists, and scholars working from the context of formerly colonized nations have responded to the legacies of racial, cultural, and economic oppression. Students will look at novels, poems, art, and theater produced by those working from Africa, the Caribbean, and other formerly colonized nations in order to chart the complex networks of political solidarity these works enable. Writers like Franz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, and Gayatri Spivak will be read alongside literary and artistic pieces by writers such as Chinua Achebe, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Jamaica Kincaid, Derek Walcott, Safiya Sinclair, Arundhati Roy and artists such as Zanele Muholi, Santu Mofokeng, Tessa Mars, William Kentridge, and others. Topics such as racial memory, postcolonial identity, radical aesthetics, and Afro-futurism will be explored.
Course Attributes: EN H; AS HUM; AS LCD; BU Hum; BU IS

Undoing Empire: Introduction to Postcolonial Writing and Art

ENGLISH LITERATURE 3550

Section 01