Unit name | Decolonising Literature and Literary Studies |
---|---|
Unit code | ENGL30111 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Kirk Sides |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of English |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will examine the ways in which literary writing has intervened in - and been appropriated by - contesting forms of national(ist) discourse in a global context and the impact this has had on the study of English literature as a discipline. It examines the role of literature in decolonization by focusing specifically on the aesthetic function of literary writing and how artistic forms contribute to, develop from and contest socio-political discourses over the long twentieth century. Students will consider what it means to ‘decolonise’ literary studies through an examination of theories of global and/or world literature, transnationalism, whiteness, Englishness and Britishness. In so doing, the unit de-centres received notions of English Literature and encourages students to consider the alternative narratives which have shaped literary history, as well as to engage in a comprehensive reflection of what it means to study English at university.
On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:
Weekly:
1 x 1 hour seminar
1 x 1 hour lecture
1 x 1 hour discussion / workshop
1 x 2500 word essay (75%) [ILOs 1-5]
1 x presentation with handout (25%) [ILOs 1-4, 6]
Amos Tutuola, The Palm Wine Drinkard (1952)
U.R. Anantha Murthy, Samskara: A Rite of a Dead Man (1965; English translation 1976)
Jamaica Kincaid, My Brother (1997)
Franco Moretti, ‘Conjectures on World Literature’ New Left Review (2000)
Warwick Research Collective, Combined and Uneven Development: Towards a New Theory of World-Literature (Liverpool University Press, 2015)