I expect the students to
understand geopolitical complexities and implications
familiarize themselves with key issues in postcolonial and neocolonial studies
explore the complexities and contradictions in the principles of human rights
close-read and interpret literary works in meaningful ways
cross-reference between literary and theoretical/legal narratives to find new perspectives, and
learn to put together compelling research projects

I expect the students to
understand geopolitical complexities and implications
familiarize themselves with key issues in postcolonial and neocolonial studies
explore the complexities and contradictions in the principles of human rights
close-read and interpret literary works in meaningful ways
cross-reference between literary and theoretical/legal narratives to find new perspectives, and
learn to put together compelling research projects

This course discusses some current postcolonial and neocolonial issues in contemporary Anglophone literature. Students will read about post-decolonization separatist civil wars in Africa and South Asia to explore important topics of human rights (especially the “right of the peoples to self-determination”), (postcolonial) nation-state-building, (postcolonial) violence (in the eyes of Franz Fanon and Walter Benjamin) and sovereignty. We will consider the possibility of reading post-decolonization secession movements as delayed decolonization endeavors, and argue that literary works about the secession movement not only bear witness to this continued anti-colonial sentiment in the decolonization era, but also examine aspects of the situation that the political and the legal processes cannot resolve.

This course discusses some current postcolonial and neocolonial issues in contemporary Anglophone literature. Students will read about post-decolonization separatist civil wars in Africa and South Asia to explore important topics of human rights (especially the “right of the peoples to self-determination”), (postcolonial) nation-state-building, (postcolonial) violence (in the eyes of Franz Fanon and Walter Benjamin) and sovereignty. We will consider the possibility of reading post-decolonization secession movements as delayed decolonization endeavors, and argue that literary works about the secession movement not only bear witness to this continued anti-colonial sentiment in the decolonization era, but also examine aspects of the situation that the political and the legal processes cannot resolve.

Literary works:
Chimamanda Adichie. Half of a Yellow Sun.
Chinua Achebe. There Was a Country.
Kiran Desai. The Inheritance of Loss.
Michael Ondaatje. Anil’s Ghost.
Dave Eggers. What is the What?

Theoretical works:
Joseph Slaughter. Human Rights, Inc.
Giorgio Agamben. State of Exception. Meat without End.
Walter Benjamin. “Critique of Violence”.
Franz Fanon. The Wretched of the Earth.
Kwame Nkrumah. Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism.

Literary works:
Chimamanda Adichie. Half of a Yellow Sun.
Chinua Achebe. There Was a Country.
Kiran Desai. The Inheritance of Loss.
Michael Ondaatje. Anil’s Ghost.
Dave Eggers. What is the What?

Theoretical works:
Joseph Slaughter. Human Rights, Inc.
Giorgio Agamben. State of Exception. Meat without End.
Walter Benjamin. “Critique of Violence”.
Franz Fanon. The Wretched of the Earth.
Kwame Nkrumah. Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism.