Postcolonial themes

Engelsk B (HHX) · HHX · B-niveau · Litteratur og kultur

🇬🇧 Postcolonial themes

Postcolonial literature = literary works that engage with the legacies of European colonialism. Roughly 1950s onwards as colonies gained independence.

Theoretical framework: Edward Said Orientalism (1978) — Western representations of "the Orient" as Other.

Homi Bhabha — hybridity, mimicry, "third space".

Gayatri Spivak — "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988). Frantz Fanon The Wretched of the Earth (1961) — colonial violence + decolonization.

Major postcolonial writers:

1.

Chinua Achebe (Nigeria, 1930-2013) — father of African literature in English. Things Fall Apart (1958) — Igbo society's collision with British colonialism. Most-taught African novel globally. No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964). Critical of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (essay "An Image of Africa", 1975).

2.

Salman Rushdie (Indian-British, b. 1947) — Midnight's Children (1981, Booker Prize) — Saleem Sinai born at midnight of Indian independence. Magic realism + politics. The Satanic Verses (1988) — Khomeini fatwa 1989. Survived attempted assassination August 2022 in NY.

3.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria, b. 1977) — Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) — Biafra-war 1967-70. Americanah (2013) — Nigerian student in USA + UK, race + identity. We Should All Be Feminists (2014, TED talk). The Danger of a Single Story (TED talk 2009 — most-viewed).

4.

Arundhati Roy (India, b. 1961) — ***The God of Small Thing

Læringsmål

• Forklare postkoloniale teoriers relevans for international business og handel
• Analysere engelsksprogede postkoloniale tekster (Achebe, Adichie)
• Diskutere fair trade, globale forsyningskæder og ulighed i et postkolonialt perspektiv
• Reflektere over vestlige virksomheders ansvar i globale markeder

Sådan kan du arbejde med emnet

• Forklar, hvad postkolonialisme betyder, og giv et eksempel på, hvordan tidligere kolonimagters sprog og kultur stadig påvirker tidligere kolonier
• Diskuter, hvordan migration og identitet er centrale temaer i postkolonial litteratur og film
• Analyser et kort uddrag af en postkolonial tekst og identificer, hvilke spor af kolonihistorien der kommer til udtryk

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