SYA 4011

POSTCOLONIAL THEORY

Instructor: Professor Percy C. Hintzen

SIPA 330
phintzen@fiu.edu
305-348-4419

Time: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11.00 am – 11.50. am.

Place: Chemistry and Physics: 117.

Office Hours: Wednesday 3 – 6 pm.

SIPA 330

Course Description and Objectives

The objective of the course is to provide advanced undergraduate students with an
introduction to post-colonial theory, its concepts, problems, and debates. The course
examines how contemporary global, regional, national, and subnational conditions are
influenced and partly determined by the strong legacy of colonialism. The course will
focus on theories that examine the relationship among history, society, politics, and
economics. The problem posed by the course relates to the persistence of colonial forms
after the formal dissolution of Europe’s overseas empires during the latter half of the
twentieth century, and particularly after 1947. Notwithstanding the granting of
independence, the various campaigns of anti-colonial resistance and challenges at all
levels to colonialism, Western influence continues to shape post-colonial formation
through the use of economic, military, and political power and ideology.

The course will introduce students to discussions about the experiences of various
historical and contemporary realities that form the complex of post-colonial thinking. It
engages post-colonialism as a continuing process of reconstruction and resistance. It is
impossible to examine the post-colonial without taking into account its antecedents and
its consequences. And a significant portion of the course will deal with both. The course
considers European colonialism as an “historical fact” that has produced diverse material
effects everywhere. The imperial force of Europe continues to intrude everywhere, as
does the legacy of colonialism in Europe and European settler societies. So post-colonial
theory has universal global applications that the course will examine. The course will
engage with theories of imperialism and neo-colonialism as aspects of post-colonial
thinking.

The course will proceed through engagement with selected readings on colonialism,
imperialism, neo-colonialism, anti-colonialism, and post-colonialism. The field is an
inter-disciplinary one that engages multiple analytical frameworks.

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COURSE REQUIREMENTS
4 Mid Term Examinations 40%
Summary Review Paper 25%
Final Examination 25%
Class Discussion 10%

Mid-Term
There will be four mid-term examinations. Each exam will count for 10 percent of the
grade. Two of the exams will be in-class essays that test familiarity with the reading and
two will be take home examinations that test capacity for critical reflection,

Final Examination
There will be a final examination covering the entire course.

Summary Review Paper

Students will be required to write a 4–5 page summary review paper focused on their
understanding of the post-colonial condition. A prompt will be handed out after the
second week of class.

Class Discussion
Students will be expected to contribute to class discussion. Fridays are reserved for
reviews and discussions of the week’s readings. Students will be graded on their
participation. Students will be called upon to contribute. Evidence that the week’s
readings have not been done will be used as a basis for deduction of discussion points.

Reading and Class Assignments

A course-reader will be used that contains all the required readings.

January 6th.
I. Introduction to the Class

II. What is Postcolonialism?

January 8th
Reading
Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin.
Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts.” 2nd Ed. Routledge, 2007.
“Post-Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Pp. 168-173
“Post-Colonial Reading” Pp. 173-174.
“Post-Colonial State.” Pp. 174-175.
“Postcolony.” Pp. 175-178.

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January 10th
Class Discussion

January 13th
Reading
Robert C. Young. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Blackwell, 2001.
Chapter 1. “Colonialism and the Politics of Postclonial Critique”. Pp. 1–11
Chapter 5. “Postcolonialism”. Pp. 57-69.

January 15th
Reading:
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. Eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial
Theory: A Reader Columbia University Press, 1994.
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman “ Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: an
Introduction” pp. 1-20
Ch. 8. Aijaz Ahmed. “Orientalism and After.” Pp. 162-171.

January 17th
Discussion

January 20th
Martin Luther King Holiday

January 22nd.
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. Eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial
Theory: A Reader Columbia University Press, 1994.
Part Four: Theorising Post-Coloniality: Intellectuals and Institutions:
“Introduction.” Pp. 271-275
Ch. 15. Vijay Mishra and Bob Hodge. “What is Post(-)colonialism? Pp. 276-290

January 24th
Discussion

III. Colonialism and Resistance

January 27th
Reading
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. Eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial
Theory: A Reader Columbia University Press, 1994.
Part One: “Theorising Colonised Cultures and Anti-Colonial Resistance”
“Introduction.” Pp.23-26
Ch. 2. Franz Fanon. “On National Culture”. Pp. 36-52
Ch. 5. Homi Bhabha. “Remembering Fanon: Self, Psyche, and the Colonial Condition.”
Pp. 112-123.

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January 29th
Reading
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. Eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial
Theory: A Reader Columbia University Press, 1994.
Ch. 1. Leopold Sedar Senghor. “Negritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth Century”.
Pp. 27-36.
Ch. 3. Amilcar Cabral. “National Liberation and Culture”. Pp. 53-65

January 31st
First Exam in Class

IV. Freedom Struggles.

February 3rd
Reading
Robert C. Young. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Blackwell 2001.
Ch. 12. “The National Liberation Movements: Introduction”. Pp. 161-166
Ch. 13. “Marxism and the National Liberation Movements.” Pp. 167-181.

February 5th
Reading
Robert C. Young. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Blackwell, 2001.
Ch. 14. “China, Egypt, Bandung.” Pp. 183-192.
Ch. 18. “Africa II. Nkrumah and Pan-Africanism.” Pp. 236-252.

February 7th
Discussion

V. The Postcolonial Economy: Proposal and Problem

February 10th
Reading
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. Eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial
Theory: A Reader Columbia University Press, 1994.
Ch. 16. Anne McClintock. “The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term ‘Post-
colonialism’” pp. 291-304.
Ch. 18. Arjun Appadurai. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.”
Pp. 324-339

February 12th
Reading
Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith. Eds. The Case Against the Global Economy.
Sierra Club Books. 1996.
Chapter 34. Satish Kumar. “Gandhi’s Swadeshi: The Economics of Permanence.” Pp.
418-424.

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(Robert C. Young. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Blackwell, 2001.
Ch. 23. “India II. Gandhi’s Counter-modernity.” Pp. 317-334.)

February 14
Class Discussion

February 17th
Reading
Arundhati Roy. Power Politics. 2nd. Ed. South End Press. 2001.
Ch. 1. “The Ladies Have Feelings, so…Shall we Leave it to the Experts?” pp. 1-34.

February 19thth
Reading
Percy C. Hintzen. “After Modernization: Globalization and the African Dilemma” in
Modernization as Spectacle in Africa_ Edited by Peter J. Bloom, Stephan F.
Miescher, and Takyiwaa Manuh. Indiana University Press, 2014 (Forthcoming).

February 21st
Second Exam. In Class

February 24th
Reading
Escape from Empire: The Developing World’s Journey through Heaven and Hell.
Alice H. Amsden Cambridge, MIT Press. 2009
Ch. 10. “The Devil Take the Hindmost.” Pp. 137-148
Ch. 11. “Great Balls of Fire” pp. 149-163.

VI. Domination, Distortion, and Consequences

February 26th
Reading
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. Eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial
Theory: A Reader Columbia University Press, 1994.
Ch. 9. Aime Cesaire. “From Discourse on Colonialism”. Pp. 172-180.
Ch. 10. Anthony Giddens. “From The Consequences of Modernity.” Pp. 181-189.

February 28th
Class Discussion

March 3rd
Reading
Achille Mbembe. On the Postcolony. University of California Press, 2001
Ch. 1. “Of Commandment.” Pp. 24-65.
Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. Eds. The Post-Colonial Studies
Reader. 2nd Ed. Routledge: 2006.

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Achille Mbembe. Ch. 10. “The Intimacy of Tyranny”. Pp. 66-69.

VII. Challenging Modernity.

March 5thth
Reading.
David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen. Eds. Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural
Studies. Routledge: 1996.
Ch. 17. David Morley. “EurAm, modernity, reason and alterity or, postmodernism, the
highest stage of cultural imperialism.” Pp. 326-360.

March 7th
Discussion

March 10th
Spring Break (No Classes)

March 12th
Spring Break (No Classes)

March 14th
Spring Break (No Classes)

March 17thth
Reading
Dipesh Chakrabarty. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical
Difference. Princeton University Press. 2000.
Introduction: “The Idea of Provincializing Europe.” Pp. 3-23.
Ch. 1. “Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History”. Pp. 27-46.

VIII. Alternative Vectors of Connection

March 19th
Reading
Shalini Puri. The Caribbean Postcolonial: Social Equality, Post-Nationalism, and
Cultural Hybridity.” Palgrave, 2004
“Introduction.” pp. 1-16
Ch. 1. “Theorising Hybridity: The Post-Nationalist Moment.” Pp. 19-41.

March 21st
Third Exam: Take Home

March 24th
Reading
Aihwa Ong. Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Duke
Univ. Press. 1999.

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Introduction. “Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality.” Pp. 1-26.

March 26thth
Reading
Aihwa Ong. Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Duke
Univ. Press. 1999.
Ch. 1. “The Geopolitics of Cultural Knowledge”. Pp. 29 – 54

March 28th
Discussion

March 31st
Reading
Robert C. Young. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Blackwell, 2001.
Ch. 25. “Women, Gender and Anti-Colonialism”. Pp. 360-382.

April 2nd
Reading
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. Eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial
Theory: A Reader Columbia University Press, 1994.
Ch. 11. Chandra Talpade Mohanty. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and
Colonial Discourses.” Pp. 196-220.

April 4th
Class Discussion

IX. Counterhegemonic Movements

April 7thth
Reading
J. Timmons Roberts, Amy Bellone Hite. Eds. The Globalization and Development
Reader: Perspectives on Development and Global Change (Paperback). Blackwell
2007.
Ch. 27. Peter Evans. “Counterhegemonic Globalization: Transnational Social Movements
in the Contemporary Global Political Economy (2005).” Pp. 420-442.

X. The Problem of Economics.

April 9th
Reading
Amartya Sen. Development as Freedom. Anchor (Reprint Edition) 2000.
Introduction. “Development as Freedom” pp. 3 – 12
Ch. 12. “Individual Freedom as a Social Commitment” pp. 282-298

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April 11th
Fourth Exam: Take Home

April 14th
Reading
Vandana Shiva. Earth Democracy. Southend Press 2005
Introduction “Principles of Earth Democracy.” Pp. 1-12
Ch. 1. “Living Economies.” Pp. 13-72.

April 16th
Reading
Immanuel Wallerstein, World Systems Analysis Duke University Press 2004
Ch 5: “The Modern World System in Crisis”. Pp. 76-90

April 18th
Class Discussion.
Final Paper Due

April 23rd
Final Exam.