RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY PROGRAM IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE Comparative Literature 397:01: “Postcolonial Readings of Colonialism in the Americas” Professor Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel Office hours: Mondays at the Institute for Research on Women (160 Ryders Lane, Douglass College) 1:00-2:00 p.m. or College Ave Student Center by appointment e-mail: [email protected] Class time: Wednesdays 3:00-6:00 p.m. Room: Comp Lit seminar Room, 195 College Ave. CAC Course description This course reviews a series of theoretical and cultural debates that take Latin American and Caribbean colonialism as a point of departure to reconsider advantages and pitfalls of postcolonial studies. The main contention of the course is that after the intense debate against the applicability of postcolonial studies to Latin America (Klor de Alva, Coronil, Mignolo, and Adorno), there is a new generation of scholars who are proposing postcolonial readings of colonial discourses. The course will develop its argument in three complementary directions. First, it will provide a general definition of colonialism, coloniality and postcolonialism (Osterhammel ,Said, Spivak, Bhabha, Loomba, Young and Quijano). Then, we will address the ways in which these debates have been inflected in two different geographical areas that share an extended period of colonialism, that in some cases includes more than one form of imperial domination: the Caribbean and Latin American Tierra Firme (1493- 1700) and the Postcolonial Anglo, French and Hispanic Caribbean (1930-2000). Finally, each one of these colonial experiences will be examined through cultural representations and symbolical productions to propose an alternative canon of postcolonial narratives that can be studied in a comparative framework. Some of the primary texts that we will read include the following authors: Cristóbal Colón, Hernán Cortés, El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Cirilo Villaverde, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Jamaica Kincaid, Eduoard Glissant, Lourdes Casal, Erika López, and Rodney Morales. (Course open to advanced undergraduates as Comp Lit 397:01) Texts: Most readings available on Sakai, electronic reserve. The following books are also required readings and are available at the Rutgers Library or at www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com: Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism. New York: Routledge, 2005. ISBN-10: 0415350646 /ISBN-13: 978-0415350648. $18.00 Paul Gilroy, Postcolonial Melancholia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. ISBN-10: 023113455X /ISBN-13: 978-0231134552. $15.75 Cirilo Villaverde, Cecilia Valdés or El Angel Hill. Translation Helen Lane. Edition, Introduction and notes by Sibylle Fischer. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN-10: 0-19-514395-7 /ISBN-13: 978-0-19-514395-9. $29.99 Frantz Fanon, Black Skins, White Masks. Translation by Richard Philcox. New York: Grove Press, 2008. ISBN-10: 0-8021-4300-8 /ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-4300-6. $11.20 Erika López, Flaming Iguanas. Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN-10: 068485368X /ISBN-13: 978-0684853680. $15.20 Comparative Literature Learning Goals: These student learning goals have been developed by the Program in Comparative Literature for its respective majors, minors, and for non-majors who take these courses as electives: 1. Students will demonstrate familiarity with a variety of world literatures as well as methods of studying literature and culture across national and linguistic boundaries and evaluate the nature, function and value of literature from a global perspective. 2. They will demonstrate critical reasoning and research skills; design and conduct research in an individual field of concentration (such as literary theory, women's literature, post colonial studies, literature and film, etc); analyze a specific body of research and write a clear and well-developed paper or project about a topic related to more than one literary and cultural tradition. 3. They will demonstrate competency in one foreign language and at least a basic knowledge of the literature written in that language. Course Learning Goals: 1. Students will learn key terms in colonial and postcolonial debates, such as colonialism, postcolonialism, coloniality of power, coloniality of diaspora, intracolonial migrations, extended colonialism, archipelago studies and racialization, in order to be conversant in debates about colonialism, coloniality and postcolonialism in the insular Caribbean and Latin America. 2. Students will become familiar with the insular Caribbean geopolitical history. 3. Students will read key literary texts from Latin America and the French, Anglo and Hispanic Caribbean to analyze the representation and articulation of colonial discourses from 1492 until the present. 4. Students will learn writing skills, through essay exams written in class, workshops conducted during class time to work on peer-editing of their essays, and by writing and re-writing the short “reflexiones” on the primary texts analyzed in class. 5. The course will also cover a basic historical chronology for Latin America and the Caribbean from the 15th century until the present, with focus on the problematic consolidation of national states in a neocolonial and postcolonial context, as well as other forms of political association with former/actual metropolis in order to understand the process of extended colonialism that has been prevalent in the insular Caribbean. 6. Students will learn how to conduct historically grounded analysis of literary, visual and performative cultural manifestations. 7. Students will learn how to do literary analysis by doing close-reading exercises in class, in exams, and in short papers written at home. Evaluation: Class attendance and participation 10% 3 short reaction papers on primary readings 30% Midterm 15% Critical review of one session of the Caribbean Philosophical Association Conference held on September 29-October 1, 2011 10% Final Exercise on day of Final Exam 15% Final 10 page paper due on December 7 20% Thesis and preliminary bibliography 5% (October 26) Draft 5% (November 16) Final Paper 10% (December 7) Requirements: 1. Three brief “reflexiones” (1-2 pages, double spaced) written in English and typed. Each “reflexión” will be a critical commentary or close-reading of the primary literary text to be discussed in class on the date the exercise is due. If a rewrite is needed, the student must complete the revision of each “reflexión” before the deadline for the next written exercise, or the rewrite will not be graded. Rewrites will only be accepted if the first version of the essay was handed in on time. 2. One midterm. 3. One partial test will be administered as a final exam via email and due on Tuesday December 20 by noon. Please do not make vacation plans that conflict with this date. Exam can only be re-scheduled if all the students in the class agree to hold the test on an earlier date. 4. One 10-page page research paper that will be prepared throughout the semester. A list of suggested texts for the final paper is included in the class syllabus. Students will choose a topic, define a thesis and inform the instructor by October 12. Each student must find a secondary bibliography relevant to the topic of the paper with a minimum of 5 entries (including at least two journal articles and two book chapters) by October 26. Students will hand in a first draft of the essay on November 16, and a final version of the essay during the last week of classes. 5. Attendance and participation are expected. Students should come to each class having read the assigned texts and ready to participate in the discussion. Participation will be graded based on attendance, active intervention in class, quizzes, and preparation of short assignments that will be presented in class (such as oral reports on some of the critical readings, as well as on some of the primary literary and audiovisual materials studied in the course). Participation grade will be lowered 10% after 3 absences with no medical excuse or a letter from the dean. Three late arrivals are equivalent to one absence. 6. Papers, quizzes, assignments and exams should be completed by the dates announced in the syllabus. There will be no make-ups for any of the class assignments, and in case of illness students must provide a medical excuse or a letter from the dean to request any extensions or make-ups. 7. Students are expected to attend one of the sessions of the 3-day conference held at Rutgers by the Caribbean Philosophical Association on September 29-October 1, 2011. After the conference, each student will prepare a 2-3 pages critical review of one of the sessions of the conference, linking the presentations with the debates discussed in class. 8. Plagiarism is not allowed in class. If a student uses any ideas from another person without properly acknowledging the sources used, the evaluation of her/his work will be suspended and his case will be referred to the University’s administration. Plagiarism is understood as follows: Plagiarism is the representation of the words or ideas of another as one's own in any academic exercise. To avoid plagiarism, every direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks or by appropriate indentation and must be properly cited in the text or in a footnote. Acknowledgment is required when material from another source stored in print, electronic, or other medium is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in one's own words. To acknowledge a paraphrase properly, one might state: "to paraphrase Plato's comment . ." and conclude with a footnote identifying the exact reference. A footnote [or endnote] acknowledging only a directly quoted statement does not suffice to notify the reader of any preceding or succeeding paraphrased material. Information which is common knowledge, such as names of leaders of prominent nations, basic scientific laws, etc. need not be footnoted; however, all facts or information obtained in reading or research that are not common knowledge among students in the course must be acknowledged.