1 HIS 382N/ ANS 389C (# 31949 and # 40100) Postcolonialism: History as Theory Professor Indrani Chatterjee (ichatterjee@austin.utexas.edu) Fall 2013 Class Times: Monday, 3-6 pm, CBA 4.338 Office: GAR 3.412 Office Hours: Thursday 11.30-1.30 pm DESCRIPTION OF COURSE: This course aims at familiarizing graduate students with strands of political philosophy (and resulting ideas of history) by locating them in particular moments in colonial and anticolonial struggles. It aims to make students aware of the political foundations of all interpretative methods that they will use in their careers. Part A of the course begins with understanding Postcolonialism as a method of critical enquiry that has historical roots in late nineteenth and early-twentieth century European thought, namely that of Marx and Lenin. Part B studies the ways in which Marxist philosophies were deployed by anti-imperialist scholars as they set about interpreting the historical past of colonized and newly decolonized nation-states. While each of the continents had widely varying experiences of colonialisms, the scholars of some have become exemplars of anti-colonial historiography. Subaltern Studies is the name of one such scholarly tradition that has been associated with the historiography of modern India. Scholars of this school have been influential in making Indian history accessible to audiences in the US. But their historical interpretations have also received sustained critical attention. The course will study both: the antecedents and outlines of Subaltern Studies scholarship as well as their critics. The course aims to prepare graduate students to understand their own locations in space and
2 ideas of time and narrative, and to better identify problems and pitfalls of historiographical traditions. GRADING: 1) Class participation including oral presentation: 30% 2) Short Essays: 30% 3) Long paper: 40% COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Buy or Rent the following books: 1) Robert Young, Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction, Blackwell, 2001. 2) Edward Said, Orientalism, Princeton University Press, 1979 AND Out of Place: A Memoir, 2000. 3) Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincialising Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, Princeton University Press, 2000. Complete Required readings before class. Participate in discussions of the Required readings in class + Lead at least 1discussion during the semester. The format for leading discussion is the following: open with a brief presentation (5-10 minutes) summarizing the gist of the reading, placing it in either historiographical or methodological context, pointing out its strengths PRIOR to discussing its weaknesses, assessing its persuasiveness and its possibilities. Raise two or three questions for the class to mull over. Write 2 review essays (900-1000 words each). Each essay should have a three part structure: the first part a summary of the author s argument, the second discussing the author argument in terms of the author s methods, sources, philosophical or literary locations. The third segment
3 should try to indicate the way forward into a larger historiography (either of an Area, or a Thematic, specialization). All essays will be submitted electronically. Write 1 long essay (10,000 words+), based on more extensive reading (at least three books that you have not already touched upon in the course. This essay is due on the last day of classes. PART A: Origins September 9, 2013: Introductions: When is Postcolonial? Why do we need the term? 1) Required Readings: Rajeev Patke Postcolonialism in Theory, Culture and Society, 23, 2-3, May 2006, pp. 369-372. 2) Ato Quayson, Periods versus Concepts: Space Making and the Question of Postcolonial Literary History, PMLA, 127.2, 2012, 342-47. 3) David Haberly, The Search for a National Language, Comparative Literary Studies, 1974, 11, 1, 85-97 September 16: Genealogies of Debate: Liberalism, Dialectical Materialism, Anti- Colonialism Required: 1) Karl Marx, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1853/06/25.htm 8) Engels: Origin of the Family, at http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/ch02.htm 9) Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism, at http://www.marx2mao.com/lenin/imp16.html (all 156-odd pages) [Submit your FIRST SHORT ESSAY on these readings on Sept 20-21 electronically] September 23: Anti-Colonial Socialism and Nationalism:
4 Required: 1) Skim Antonio Gramsci, Selections from Prison Notebooks, 52-120 4) Robert Young Postcolonialism, 127-157 5) Adrienne Edgar, Bolshevism, Patriarchy and the Nation: The Soviet Emancipation of Muslim Women in PanIslamic Perspective, Slavic Review, 65, 2, Summer 2006, 252-272. September 30: PART B: Non-European Critiques of Colonial European Reasons: North Africa 1) Robert Young, Postcolonialism, 161-307+ 395-426 (Foucault in Tunisia and Derrida) October 7: 1) Jacques Derrida on philosophy at http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jacquesderrida/articles/of-the-humanities-and-the-discipline-of-philosophy/ 2) Moishe Postoine, Deconstruction as Social Critique: Derrida on Marx and the New World Order, History and Theory, 1998, 370-87 + 3) Ethan Kleinberg, Haunting History: Deconstruction and the Spirit of Revision, History and Theory, Dec 2007, 113-143. 4) Edward Baring, Liberalism and the Algerian War: The Case of Jacques Derrida Critical Inquiry, 36, 2, Winter 2010, 239-261 October 14: Palestine and Literary Critique Required 1) Edward Said, Out of Place: A Memoir + 2) Orientalism + 3) Reina Lewis, Gendering Orientalism
5 [Submit your SECOND SHORT ESSAY on either of the readings or themes electronically between Oct 17-19] October 21: India and Critique of Historical Method: the beginning of Subaltern Studies 1) Read Biographical Sketch of Ranajit Guha by Shahid Amin and Gautam Bhadra+ Ranajit Guha, On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India, Subaltern Studies 1 (pp 1-8) + b) Prose of Counter-Insurgency in Subaltern Studies 2 (1-42, pdf on sakai)+ c) Chandra s Death in Subaltern V (pdf on sakai)+ The Small Voice of History Subaltern Studies 9, 1-12 2) Gyan Prakash, Subaltern Studies as Postcolonial Criticism, AHR, 1994 October 28: Read 1) Dipesh Chakravarty, Provincialising Europe November 4: Engaging Subaltern Studies Required: Read 1) Jose Rabasa, Without History: Subaltern Studies, The Zaptista Insurgency and the Specter of History, 52-91, 124-47 (PDF) + Young Postcolonialism 193-216 PART C: Beyond Postcolonialism or Beyond History? November 11: Critiques of Subaltern Studies: 1) Rosalind O Hanlon and David Washbrook, After Orientalism: Culture, Criticism and Politics in the Third World, Comparative Studies of Society and History, 34, 1, 1992, 141-167. 2) Spivak, Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography in Subaltern Studies 4, 330-363 + Can the Subaltern Speak? -PDF
6 3) Sumit Sarkar, The Decline of the Subaltern in Subaltern Studies and Postmodernism and the Writing of History PDF 4) Timothy Brennan, Antonio Gramsci and Postcolonial Theory: Southernism, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 10, 2, 2001, 143-187. 4) Kamala Visvesvaran, Small Speeches and Subaltern Gender, Subaltern Studies 9, 83-125 PDF November 18: Unintended Gains of Postcolonialism? Expanded Horizons and Expansive Bases for Research Required: 1) Ritu Birla, Maine (and Weber) Against the Grain: Towards a Postcolonial Genealogy of the Corporate Person, Journal of Law and Society, 40, 1, 2013, 92-114. 2) Mayfair Mei-hui Yang, Postcoloniality and Religiosity in Modern China: The Disenchantments of Sovereignty, Theory, Culture and Society, 2011, 28, 2, 3-44. 3) Miriam Cooke, Women, Religion and the Postcolonial Arab World, Cultural Critique, 45, 2000, 150-184. 4) Gillian Hewitson, Economics and the Family: a Postcolonial Perspective, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2013, 37, 91-111. 5) Walter Mignolo, Local Histories/Global Designs: Colonial, Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking, ebook on UT library, 2012 ed., pp 217-312 (on language) 6) Shaunaq Sastry and Mohan J. Dutta, Public Health, Global Surveillance and Emerging Disease Worldview: a Postcolonial Appraisal of PEPFAR, Health Communications, 2011, 27, 6, 519-532.
7 From November 25 till the end, each graduate student will work on their own in order to write ONE of the three following: 1) What are current critiques of PostColonial Theory missing and how will you propose to redirect research? You can either review 3 recently published books on Postcolonialism itself (such as Vivek Chhibber s Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital) OR 2) undertake a comprehensive review of any one of the critics of Subaltern Studies such as Rosalind O Hanlon, Sumit Sarkar, David Ludden and others OR 3) In what ways have the readings you have done so far shaped your appreciation of the state of the debate in your particular area of study or subfield? Have these readings pushed you to conceive of hitherto under-explored areas or modes of research? Construct a review relevant to your field with at least 3 important books, or a research proposal which lays out particular bodies of archival materials that will enable you to develop a particular argument. In either essay, students should aim for jargon-free lucid prose, intended to persuade the least informed among us, while developing a wider appreciation of the field as a whole. Submit Final Review Essay to me in the office on Dec 6 by 12 noon.