| Unit name | Postcolonial Imaginings |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL39025 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Krishnan |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit aims to introduce students to some of the richness, diversity and range of postcolonial literatures published in English over the last fifty years. As an enormous body of work, spanning continents, languages and time periods, postcolonial literatures has emerged as one of the fastest growing subfields of literary study in recent years. In this unit, we will read a sample of the texts which make up this body of work, covering a variety of geographies and historical eras. The unit's aims are: to read and critically assess a selection of postcolonial writing, and to become familiar with critical and theoretical approaches to the postcolonial; to consider these questions: what is the postcolonial? Is colonialism really ‘post’? Does the idea of the postcolonial efface the legacies of violence brought by colonialism? Who counts as postcolonial?
On successful completion of this unit students will have
(1) developed a detailed knowledge and critical understanding of a range of postcolonial literature of the last fifty years;
(2) in-depth knowledge of some of the literary and historical contexts in which this literature was produced;
(3) demonstrated the ability to analyse and evaluate differing critical accounts of the primary literature;
(4) demonstrated the ability to identify and evaluate pertinent evidence in order to present a cogent argument;
(5) strengthened their skills in argumentation and academic writing.
1 x 2 hour seminar per week.
Both summative elements will assess ILOs 1-5.
