CHUMS 3500 Postcolonial History, Literature, Ethics
This course examines the history, literature, and ethics of decolonization and postcolonial societies. From 1945 to 1962, dozens of colonized peoples in Asia and Africa fought for and won national liberation. After achieving political independence, these postcolonial societies sought to liberate themselves from the economic, social, and cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism. This course examines the ethical frameworks of anti-colonial and post-colonial activists; the literature of non-Western writers grappling with imperialism’s legacies in both the past and present; and historical texts that seek to recover the voices of the oppressed. Consistent with the field of postcolonial studies, this course takes an interdisciplinary approach to this topic. After analyzing representative philosophical, literary, visual, and historical texts, students will apply postcolonial theory to a past or present topic of their choice.