Contesting Colonialisms: Theories, Practices, and Texts

New MSt Special Subject (2022/23)

This cross-disciplinary special subject introduces MSt candidates to authors and texts from the nineteenth century to the present that consider and critique the ideologies and institutions of colonialism and ethnocentrism, and that propose and/or problematize different modes of anticolonial or decolonial thinking. The study of texts from across periods, languages, and traditions will enable students to gain a fuller understanding of the distinct historical, racial, cultural, and political contexts that give rise to critique of colonial systems and also their comparability. 

Instructors

María del Pilar Blanco (Spanish); Ben Bollig (Spanish); Jane Hiddleston (French); Philip Rothwell (Portuguese); Claire Williams (Portuguese).

 

Units/themes

Critiques of Eurocentrism

Authors covered: Walter Mignolo, Enrique Dussel, Maria Paula Meneses, Alfredo Bosi

Rethinking Caliban: Metaphors of Power 

Authors covered: José Martí, Rubén Darío, Roberto Fernández Retamar, Boaventura de Sousa Santos

Unmaking Canons 

Authors covered: Mário de Andrade, Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Schwarz

Race and the Critique of Colonialism 

Authors covered: Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, José Vasconcelos, José Carlos Mariátegui, Mário Pinto de Andrade, Agostinho Neto, Léopold Senghor

Development of Decolonial/Anticolonial Theory 

Authors covered: Amílcar Cabral, Aníbal Quijano, María Lugones, Achille Mbembe

Unravelling Colonial Languages 

Authors covered: Edouard Glissant, Abdelkébir Khatibi, Jacques Derrida, Luandino Vieira

Postcolonial Cultural and Poetic Innovations 

Authors covered : Patrick Chamoiseau, Maryse Condé, Nicolás Guillén