Aufbauseminar Cross Cultural Encounters in Colonial and Postcolonial Literature Mi 12:30-14:00

In the course of the so-called -cultural turn- in the humanities and social sciences, colonies have been (re)conceptualized as areas of cross-cultural encounters, interactions, and exchanges. Mary Louise Pratt introduced the concept of the -contact zone- to understand colonies as -social spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, [...] in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power.- Cross-cultural contact under conditions of radical inequality is a recurring theme in both colonial and postcolonial writing. There is a large body of texts that explore the boundaries separating colonizers from colonized, but that also feature moments of transgression, when these boundaries are crossed or become blurred or give way to new and transitional -in-between- spaces. In this course, we will engage in close and contextual readings of texts (short stories, novels, and excerpts from novels) that describe colonial encounters in various geographical contexts and from different historical perspectives. Set in British India and sub-Saharan Africa, respectively, Rudyard Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills (1885) and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) were written in the era of high imperialism when the British Empire was at its peak. By contrast, E. M. Forster's A Passage to India (1924) reflects the decline of the British Raj. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958) appeared two years before the author's native Nigeria gained independence, while Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981) fictionalizes India's first three decades of independence from a postcolonial vantage point. What all of these texts have in common is a shared interest in the dynamics and impact of cross-cultural encounters in a colonial environment. Excerpts from Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) will serve us as a starting point. As a coda, we will read the play Translations (1980) by Irish playwright Brian Friel a postcolonial meditation on many of the themes that we will have discussed throughout the term. Books to be purchased : (1.) Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, ed. Paul B. Armstrong (Norton Critical Editions, 4th ed., 2006), ISBN: 978-0393926361; (2.) E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, ed. Pankaj Mishra (Penguin Classics, 2005), ISBN: 978-0141441160; (3.) Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Anchor, 1994), ISBN: 978-0385474542. All other course reading will be made available electronically on ILIAS. Anglistik u.Amerikanistik (BA, PO 2013) Kernfach Universität Düsseldorf WiSe 2016/17 Dr. Frank Michael