LESSON PLAN

Dr. Sanjib Sahoo

Dept. of English & Foreign Languages

EG 550 POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURES IN ENGLISH

A. Indian Writing in English B. African Literature in English

The aim of this course is to offer to the student an intensive study in postcolonial genre,
both fiction and poetry. The prescribed texts would be examined as offering aesthetic
responses to the conditions of colonialism/postcolonialism through new literary forms and
a concern to rework the paradigms of literary and cultural tradition; and of nationalism,
gender, and class. We will analyze and compare the different colonial/postcolonial
experience as well as forms of resistance developed by writers of these regions – South
Asia and Africa.

Course Requirements:
The course will be run both as lecture class and discussion seminar. Students are expected
to participate actively in each class throughout the semester. Students would be divided
into groups and each group will be required to highlight key features on the given topic
and initiate class discussion.

Assessment:
Class Attendance and participation
Class Test
Mid-term Examination
Term End Examination

Total Contact Class: 36

Some Key Concepts: (4 class)

 Colonialism, Imperialism, Decolonialization, Neo-colonialism, Postcolonialism
 Colonialism as a Discourse
 Colonialism, Knowledge & Literature
 Colonial & Postcolonial Identities (Constructing Racial & Cultural Difference)
 Colonialism and Class, Gender
 Resistance – Nationalism, Imagining the Nation, Tradition and History
 Problem of language

Some Key Texts:

Aime Cesaire – Selections from A Discourse on Colonialism
M.K. Gandhi – Hind Swaraj
Frantz Fanon – Selections from Black Skin, White Masks; The Wretched of the Earth
Albert Memmi – Selections from The Colonizer and the Colonized
Edward Said – Selections from Orientalism
Gayatri C. Spivak – Can the Subaltern Speak?
Homi K. Bhabha – Selections from The Location of Culture
Aijaz Ahmad – Selections from In Theory
Dipesh Chakravarty – Selections from Provincializing Europe
Paul Gilroy – Selections from The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness

Further Readings: To be given during class

Literary Texts
1. Selected Poems of Nissim Ezekiel (“A Poem of Dedication”; “Enterprise”; “Case
Study”; “In India”; “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”; “The Truth of Dhanya”; “Background,
Casually”; “The Railway Clerk”; “Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T. S.”; “Ganga”;
“Poster Poems”; “Hangover”; “From Very Indian Poems in Indian English ”)

Aspects to be discussed:
 History of Indian English Poetry (1 class)
 Biography of Nissim Ezekiel (1 class)
 Detailed study of the selected poems with emphasis on the “nation and narration”,
subaltern, love, and the“ issue” of language. (10 classes)
Total Class: 12.

2. Raja Rao: Kanthapura (Detailed Study)

The Serpent and the Rope (Self-study)
Ganga Ghat (Self-study)

Aspects to be discussed:
 History of Indian English Novel (1 class)
 Biography of Raja Rao (1 class)
 Detailed study of Kanthapura with emphasis on nation and narration, gender,
subaltern, Gandhism and the issue of language (10 classes)
Total Class: 12

Review Class: 2
Classes Presentation: 04
Class Test: 02

 The class lectures and discussions would be supplemented by special screenings

of audio-visual material after class hours. Students will be asked to take part in
discussions based on such screenings.