Postcolonial Womens Writing (1 Semester) This seminar explores texts written by women from North America, the Caribbean,

and New Zealand. Beginning with a theory-based session that provides some conceptual tools with which to read and contextualize postcolonial womens writing, we will also look at different ways of writing theory. Each text is discussed in relation to its specific cultural and historical context. However, questions such as Is there a shared concern among postcolonial women writers? and How do postcolonial women writers relate to Western feminist and to other postcolonial discourses? are also explored. Other areas of study include different forms of writing the self and the impact of oral traditions on the construction of womens identities. Michaelmas Term 1. Introduction Writing Theory: 2. Eavan Boland, Lava Cameo, in Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in our Time (Manchester: Carcanet, 1995) Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Grandmas Story in Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism (Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989) Gloria Anzaldua, excerpts from Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, 1987, second edition, introd. by Sonia Saldvar-Hull (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1999) Womens writing from North America: 3. Margaret Atwood, Cats Eye 4. Louise Erdrich, Tracks 5. Maeve Brennan and Clarice Lispector (selected journalism) Womens writing from the Caribbean: 6. Grace Nichols, I Is A Long-Memoried Woman 7. Study Week 8. Jamaica Kincaid, The Autobiography of My Mother 9. Jean Rhys (stories) Womens writing from New Zealand: 10. Janet Frame, excerpts from An Angel at My Table 11. Keri Hulme, The Bone People 12. Katherine Mansfield (selected stories)

Dr Melanie Otto (ottom@tcd.ie)