Postcolonial Literature

By Prof. Sayan Chattopadhyay | IIT Kanpur

Learners enrolled: 1508

This course on Postcolonial literature will explore colonialism and anti-colonial resistance through the cultural legacies and literary imprints that they leave. It will also be an introduction to the specialised field of postcolonial studies which started emerging during the 1980s and ever since then has come to occupy a significant position within the various humanities departments across the world. It is hoped that this course will enable students to competently navigate the complex maze of theoretical terms and concepts that characterise postcolonial studies and savour the wonderful variety and richness of the literature that is today classified under the rubric of postcolonialism.

INTENDED AUDIENCE : PG/MA students of English Literature
PREREQUISITES : Nil

INDUSTRY SUPPORT : Universities and academic institutions teaching courses on postcolonialism and South Asian studies.

Summary

Course Status :	Completed
Course Type :	Elective
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	4 weeks
Category :	Humanities and Social Sciences English Studies
Credit Points :	1
Level :	Postgraduate
Start Date :	24 Jan 2022
End Date :	18 Feb 2022
Enrollment Ends :	07 Feb 2022
Exam Date :	27 Mar 2022 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1 : 1. Introduction: What is postcolonialism?

2. Commonwealth Literature

3. Colonial Discourse Analysis: Michel Foucault

4. Colonial Discourse Analysis: Edward Said

5. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Week 2 : 1. Colonialism: The African Perspective

2. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (I)

3. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (II)

4. Decolonisation and the Discourse of Nationalism: The Context of India

5. Sonnets of Henry Derozio

Week 3 : 1. Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (I)

2. Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (II)

3. Critics of Nationalism: Rabindranath Tagore and Frantz Fanon

4. Homi Bhabha and the concept of cultural hybridity

5. Caribbean Poetry: Derek Walcott
Week 4 : 1. Diasporic literature: Selections from Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

2. Gayatri Spivak: Answering the question “Can the Subaltern Speak?”

3. Mahasweta Devi Pterodactyl I

4. Mahasweta Devi Pterodactyl II

5. Conclusion: Postcolonial Futures

Books and references

Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Massachusetts Review, Vol. 18, 1977.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. UK: Heinemann, 1958.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.

Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. UK: Blackwood's Magazine, 1899.

Derozio, Henry Louis Vivian. “The Harp of India.” In Songs of the Stormy Petrel: Complete Works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. Ed. Abirlal Mukhopadhyay. Kolkata: Progressive Publisher, 2001.

Derozio, Henry Louis Vivian. “To India - My Native Land.” In Songs of the Stormy Petrel: Complete Works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. Ed. Abirlal Mukhopadhyay. Kolkata: Progressive Publisher, 2001.

Devi, Mahasweta. “Pterodactyl.” In Imaginary Maps: Three Stories. Tr. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. New York & London: Routledge, 1994.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1963.

Foucault, Michel. “The Order of Discourse.” In Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader. Ed. Robert Young. Boston: Routledge & Keagan Paul Ltd., 1971.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London: Routledge, 1998.

Rao, Raja. Kanthapura. London: New Directions, 1938.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.

Tagore, Rabindranath. Nationalism. San Fransisco: The Book Club of California, 1917.

Walcott, Derek. “A Far Cry from Africa.” Collected Poems, 1948-1984. New York: Noonday Press, 1986.

Walcott, Derek. “North and South.” Collected Poems, 1948-1984. New York: Noonday Press, 1986.

Instructor bio

Prof. Sayan Chattopadhyay

IIT Kanpur

Dr. Sayan Chattopadhyay is an assistant professor of English literature at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Kanpur. He has a doctorate degree from the University of Cambridge. His primary areas of research include Postcolonial Studies and Indian English Writings and his research articles have appeared in various scholarly journals including Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Routledge), Ariel: A Review of International English (University of Calgary), The Journal of Commonwealth Literature (Sage) and Prose Studies: History, Theory, Criticism (Routledge).

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: 27 March 2022 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 3 assignments out of the total 4 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Kanpur .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

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