MA English Part II      BZ University Multan

Paper-9 Post-colonialism Studies

In spite of the expansion, together with the eventual ascent of postcolonial studies to a paradigmatic status on contemporary intellectual scene in recent years, many of the fundamental questions about the field still remain unanswered or controversial. There have been theoretical debates, over the parameters, definition (s), methodologies or epistemological grounds, speaking positions, the locality, etc. of the postcolonial literature. In light of the suggested readings below, the focus of this section would be on situating ‘postcolonial studies’ or, more specifically, ‘postcolonial theory’, in a series of critical debates dealing with the definitions, limitations of the term, along with the key notions and debates related to the field of Post-colonialism.

Fanon's ‘Wretched of the Earth’.

Said’s ‘Culture & Imperialism’ (chapter 1-3)

Ashcroft, William D. Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin, eds. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London: Routledge, 1989

Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies. London: Routledge, 1998

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak’

Homi Bhabha's ‘Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.’ October 28 (1984) 125-33

Loomba, Ania's ‘Colonialism/Postcolonialism’

Lazarus, Neil, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2004

Moore-Gilbert, Baıt. Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Polities. London: Verso, 1997

Ahmad, Hena Zafar. Postnational Feminism in Third World Women's Literature. Boston: University of Massachusetts P, 1998

Ahmad, Aijaz. In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, London: Verso, 1992

Section II: Postcolonial Fictions

Reading the Imperial Canon

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Perceiving & mapping the colonial contact + independence:

Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Naipaul’s The House for Mr. Biswas

Section III: Rewriting the canon or counter discourse:

Coetzee's Waiting for Barbarians

Jean Rhys ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’

Linguistics creativity:

Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things

Immigration and Race Politics

Kureshi's The Black Album

Neocolonialísm

Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist