The module, taught in English, aims at providing the students with interpretive skills and in-depth knowledge related to the main themes and theoretical issues that qualify colonial and postcolonial literature in English.
This will be done through a close reading of the set texts, chosen for their representative force and analyzed in their textual dynamics, in a wide diachronic perspective that, nonetheless, fully takes into account the specifics of their contexts.The broader gaol is to stimulate the students to develop their competence in critically approaching the texts and the historical, political and cultural dynamics underlying them.
At the end of the module the students will be able to:
-read and interpret postcolonial literary texts by structuring ideas and concepts with argumentative skill;
-comment on the texts in such a way as to demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the theoretical debate surrounding them.
WEST INDIAN MIGRANT WRITING: BECOMING BLACK BRITISH
I part: Susanna Zinato (9 lectures x 2 hours); II part: Annalisa Pes (9 lectures x 2 hours)
TEXTS:
-G. LAMMING, "A monster, a child, a slave", ch. 6 in "The Plesures of Exile" (1960)
-G. LAMMING, Water with Berries (1971 )
-A. LEVY, Small Island (2004 )
CRITICAL BILBIOGRAPHY:
- T. ASHCROFT, G.GRIFFITHS & H. Tiffin (eds.), "The Empire Writes Back:Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literatures", Routledge, 1989: Introduction; Ch.2 (Replacing Language: Textual Strategies in Postcolonial Writing), ch.5 (Replacing Theory: Postcolonial Writing and Literary Theory).
-F. FANON, "The lived experience of the black man"/"The fact of blackness", ch. 5 in "Black Skin, White Masks" (1958).
-H. BHABHA, from "The Location of Culture": ch.3 (The other question: stereotype, discrimination, and the discourse of colonialism), ch.4 (Of mimicry and man: the ambivalence of colonial discourse), Routledge, 1994.
-P. HULME, "The Profit of Language: George Lamming and the Postcolonial Novel i", in J. White (ed.), "Recasting the World: Writing After Colonialism", The J. Hopkins UP, 1993, pp.120-136.
- C. DUBOIN, "Contested Identities: Migrant Stories and Liminal Selves in Andrea Levy's 'Small Island'", "Obsidian Literature in the African Diaspora", Vol. 12. No. 1(2011), pp. 14-33.
N.B.: Detailed information concerning where to find the set bibliography will be given in the first, introductory, class.
NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING OBLIGATORY CRITICAL SOURCES:
-E. BOEHMER, "Colonial & Postcolonial Literature", Oxford UP, 1995: chs.1,2,3,5.
- "The Windrush Anniversary", BBC doc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB9o-boxXsk
- J. THIEME, "Restaging The Tempest", in "Postcolonial Con-Texts", Continuum, 2001.
-K. EVELYN, "Claiming a Space in the Thought-I-Knew-You-Place: Migrant Domesticity, Diaspora, and Home in Andrea Levy's Small Island", "South Athlantic Review", Vol. 78. No. 3/4 (2013), pp. 129-149.
TEACHING:
18 lectures (2 hours each), that leave space to seminar-like moments open to the students' contributions.
| Author | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN | Note |
| Fanon, Frantz | Black Skin, White Masks | 1958 | |||
| Evelyn, K. | "Claiming a Space in the Thought-I-Knew-You-Place: Migrant Domesticity, Diaspora, and Home in Andrea Levy's Small Island", in "South Athlantic Review", Vol. 78, No.3/4: 129-149 | 2013 | |||
| Boehmer, Elleke | Colonial & Postcolonial Literature | Oxford UP | 1995 | ||
| Duboin, C. | "Contested Identities: Migrant Stories and Liminal Selves in Andrea Levy's Small Island" in "Obsidian Literature in the African Diaspora", Vol. 12, No. 1: 14-33 | 2011 | |||
| Thieme, John | "Postcolonial Con-Texts" | Continuum | 2001 | ||
| Levy, Andrea | Small Island | 2004 | |||
| T. Ashcroft, G. Griffiths, H. Tiffin | The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures | Routledge | 1989 | ||
| Bhabha, Homi | The Location of Culture | Routledge | 1994 | ||
| Lamming, George | The Pleasures of Exile | 1960 | |||
| Hulme, Peter | "The profit of Language: George Lamming and the Postcolonial Novel" in J. White (ed.),"Recasting the World: Writing After Colonialism" | The John Hopkins UP | 1993 | ||
| Lamming, George | Water with Berries | 1971 | |||
| Lamming, George | Water with Berries | 1971 |
EVALUATION
This module will be assessed by an oral examination aimed at evaluating the student's capacity to critically interact with the set texts by drawing on the contents of the lectures and on the critical-theoretical tools discussed in class, as well as upon the critical bibliography set in the programme. The latter is meant as obligatory reading and will be part of the examination, too.
The students are required to sit for the exam with a copy of the programme and their own primary texts.
The programme remains valid for two academic years (until the January-February 2021session).
