ENGL3721: Resistance in South Asian Postcolonial Literature

• ENGL 2011 Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism

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• To explore the ways in which South Asian Anglophone writers have grappled with the idea and practice of resistance and have situated subversion at the heart of questions of power and oppression.
• To move beyond discourses of resistance developed purely in response to British colonial modes of oppression and analyse depictions of acts of defiance in response to various kinds of individual and structural injustice in both the so-called public and private spheres.
• To interrogate the specificity of female and feminist modes of resistance.
• To reflect on how the stylistic aspects of the texts complicate our understanding of socio-political engagement.
• To address what might constitute good resistance in postcolonial societies by examining the representations of distorted forms of resistance, such as religious fundamentalism.

• Focuses on postcolonial Anglophone writings by diasporic and resident South Asian writers, such as Hanif Kureishi, Arundhati Roy, Neel Mukherjee, Kamala Das and Monica Ali.
• Engages with a broad range of genres, including the novel, the short story and poetry, as well as with a few literary works in translation.
• Combines close-readings of literary works with relevant sociological, philosophical and historical writings.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students will gain in-depth undertanding of the ways in which South Asian postcolonial literature brings to the fore the complexity of the idea and practice of resistance.
• Students will be able to demonstrate familiarity with literary and sociological frameworks for addressing questions pertaining to injustice and power imbalances in contemporary postcolonial societies.

Subject-specific Skills:

• critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts
• an ability to demonstrate knowledge of a range of texts and critical approaches
• informed awareness of formal and aesthetic dimensions of literature and ability to offer cogent analysis of their workings in specific texts
• sensitivity to generic conventions and to the shaping effects on communication of historical circumstances, and to the affective power of language
• an ability to articulate and substantiate an imaginative response to literature
• an ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of concepts and theories relating to literary studies
• skills of effective communication and argument
• awareness of conventions of scholarly presentation, and bibliographic skills including accurate citation of sources and consistent use of scholarly conventions of presentation
• command of a broad range of vocabulary and an appropriate critical terminology
• awareness of literature as a medium through which values are affirmed and debated

Key Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• a capacity to analyse critically
• an ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way involving the use of distinctive interpretative skills derived from the subject
• competence in the planning and execution of essays
• a capacity for independent thought and judgement, and ability to assess the critical ideas of others
• skills in critical reasoning
• an ability to handle information and argument in a critical manner
• information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access information
• organisation and time-management skills

• Seminars: encourage peer-group discussion, enable students to develop critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts, and skills of effective communication and presentation; promote awareness of diversity of interpretation and methodology
• Consultation session: encourages students to reflect critically and independently on their work
• Independent but directed reading in preparation for seminars provides opportunity for students to enrich subject-specific knowledge and enhances their ability to develop appropriate subject-specific skills.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.
• Coursework: tests the student's ability to argue, respond and interpret, and to demonstrate subject-specific knowledge and skills such as appreciation of the power of imagination in literary creation and the close reading and analysis of texts; they also test the ability to present word-processed work, observing scholarly conventions. In individual Special Topics, the essay may, where appropriate to the subject, take an alternative form, such as 'creative criticism'.
• Feedback: The written feedback that is provided after the first assessed essay allows students to reflect on examiners' comments, giving students the opportunity to improve their work for the second essay.

Before the first assessed essay, students have an individual 15-minute consultation session, in which they are permitted to show their seminar leader a sheet of points relevant to the essay and to receive oral comment on these points. Students may also, if they wish, discuss their ideas for the second essay at this meeting.

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