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Fall 2002
Mon. 5:45-8:35 p.m.
LC 11
Instructor: Janell Hobson, Ph.D.
Office: Social Science, Room 344
Phone: 442-5575
Office Hours: Mondays and Tuesdays, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Description:
This interdisciplinary seminar will explore discourses that intersect postcolonialism and feminism. Beginning with classical texts in postcolonial studies, including Prospero and Caliban, Black Skin, White Masks, and Orientalism, we will first assess the “colonial situation” dominant in the twentieth century and the ways in which it sheds light on the twenty-first. We will then examine feminist responses and criticisms within postcolonial discourse. Finally, we will question what it means to define our contemporary world in terms of a “transnational age” and to utilize postcolonial feminist theory to analyze this period of multiraciality, dislocations and globalization.
Required Texts:
Alexander, M. Jacqui and Chandra Mohanty, Eds. Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies,
Democratic Futures. New York: Routledge Press, 1996. (abbreviated as FG.)
Bedford, Simi. Yoruba Girl Dancing. 1991.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. 1952.
Fusco, Coco. English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas. New York: The New Press, 1995.Mannoni, Octave. Prospero and Caliban. 1950.
Said, Edward. Orientalism. 1979.
Shohat, Ella, Ed. Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998. (abbreviated as TV.)
Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. New York: Random House, 2000.
Trinh, T. Minh-ha. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.
These books are available for purchase at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza. Other readings are available on electronic reserve; our access password = pocofem.
Requirements:
1. ATTENDANCE & PARTICIPATION: fully expected of every student in order for this seminar to run successfully. Your class participation performance will determine the outcome of your final grade, whether you are graded up or down accordingly.
2. CRITICAL ABSTRACTS: weekly abstracts of 200 words–articulating main arguments and points in reading assignments–are required of students registered in the 565/599 sections. Students in the 465 section need only complete 5 of these abstracts for the semester. These abstracts must be submitted on our WebCT page no later than Sunday, 11:00 p.m., before our Monday session.
3. PRESENTATION & ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: each student is required to deliver a 10-15 minute presentation on research pertaining to our reading assignments. The presenter must also prepare an annotated bibliography of 1-3 sources, to be distributed to each seminar member (either make photocopies and submit on our WebCT page).
4. CONFERENCE: You will be required to organize a conference based on this seminar. You will need to assemble panels of students in this class who will present to the public a paper-in-progress based on the conference theme. You also have the option of organizing a small event in conjunction with this conference, such as a film screening. You will be given a day time-table around which you will schedule panel presentations and a possible small evening event. You will also divide into smaller committees to work on this conference, such as forming a Scheduling Committee, a Publicity Committee, and a possible Event Committee (should you decide on pursuing this). As a class, you can choose a location for this conference (which must take place during the weekend of November 22) , and a possible budget for funding this conference (if interested in expenditures for publicity and food). The conference time table is as follows:
Nov. 22
7 or 8 p.m. – Opening and Film Screening?
Nov. 23
8:15-9:45 a.m. – Panel I
10:00-11:30 a.m. – Panel II
Lunch Break
1:00-2:30 p.m. – Panel III
2:45-4:15 p.m. – Panel IV
4:30-6:00 p.m. – Panel V?
5. PAPER-IN-PROGRESS: Since you will be expected to present a paper at this conference, you will be working on it in phases:
A.) Phase One - 200-word Paper Abstract.
B.) Phase Two - Conference Paper (6-8 pages).
*C.) Phase Three - Journal Article (18-25 pages).
Your paper abstract will be due October 28, and your conference paper must be presented at the time of the conference (in a 15-minute presentation). Students in the 465 section need to turn in a revised copy of their conference paper by November 25. The final phase is required of students registered for the 565 and 599 sections. These students are expected to turn their conference paper into a journal article for publication. They will need to select a journal to which they may submit their paper. They must then follow journal guidelines and writing style and adjust their paper accordingly. This final paper is due December 16; a one-page rationale for journal selection must be turned in with your paper abstract on October 21.
*for students in the WSS 565 and 599 sections only.
Grading Policy:
Critical abstracts = 25%
465 section (3 or more √+ = A; 3 or more √ = B; 3 or more √- = C)
565/599 sections (8 or more √+ = A)
Presentation/Annotated Bibliography = 25%
Class Conference = 25%
Paper-in-Progress = 25%
*Students in the 565/599 sections need at least a B- to pass this course.
Late assignments will result in a 25% reduction from your grade for each day late; no extensions will be granted with the exception of emergencies.
Notes on Writing the Essay and Annotated Bibliography:
1. A copy of the MLA guidebook will be placed on the reserve desk to assist you in writing correct citations for both your annotated bibliography and paper. Incorrect citations will result in an automatic failure for these assignments. Because of the seriousness of plagiarism, which takes place when you try to pass off someone else’s ideas as your own, I must grade you severely on this matter.* Hence, you are expected to refer to the MLA guidebook if you are not familiar with their guidelines (for parenthetical citations, footnotes, and listing of works cited).
2. You are expected to cite secondary sources, but you may include in your essay citations of primary sources (direct contact between yourself and a research subject, which could include historical sites or materials in archives and special collections, or human subjects through interviews or survey). Research involving human subjects must first be approved by the Institutional Review Board. Secondary sources refer to sources of information experienced “second-hand” (including articles published in journals , anthologies, or web sites, books, periodicals, and films/videos).
*Please see the University’s policy on plagiarism, which is a serious offense and will not be tolerated!
Course Schedule
Sept. 9
Course and WebCT Overview.
Unit I: Colonial Legacies & Postcolonial Criticisms
Sept. 23
Prospero and Caliban.
Black Skin, White Masks.
Presentations: Octave Mannoni (criticisms); Frantz Fanon (criticisms); Introduction to Simone deBeauvoir’s The Second Sex; Lorraine Hansberry’s response to The Second Sex.
Sept. 30
Yoruba Girl Dancing.
Screening in class: “Coffee Colored Children.”
Presentations: Simi Bedford (criticisms); Ngozi Onwurah (biography).
Oct. 7
FG: Mohanty, 3-29; Mama, 46-62; Alexander, 63-100; Hammonds, 170-82.
TV: hooks, 65-74; Piper, 75-112.
Screening in class: “Nice Coloured Girls.”
Presentations: Gayle Rubin, “The Traffic in Women”; Gayatri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”; Carmel Schrire, “Native Views of Western Eyes”; Adrian Piper (biography).
Oct. 14
Orientalism.
TV: Fusco, 113-18; Hatem, 369-90.
Screening in class: “Hollywood Harems.”
Presentations: Edward Said (criticisms); Introduction to Gendering Orientalism (plus select chapter); Introduction to Imperial Leather (plus select chapter).
Unit II: Decolonizing Language, Imagining the Nation: Feminist Narratives
Oct. 21
Woman, Native, Other.
Audio on reserve: Zap Mama, Afropean Adventures.
Presentations: Trinh (criticisms); Zap Mama (biography).
Oct. 28
Screening in class: “Surname Viet, Given Name Nam.”
FG: Shohat, 183-209.
TV: Zane, 161-86.
Presentations: Film Review(s) of Surname Viet...; Screening of Pam Tom’s Two Lies.
due: conference paper abstract.
Unit III: Cultural Fusions & Trans/national Discourses
Nov. 4
English is Broken Here.
FG: Ford-Smith, 213-58; and Wekker, 330-52.
Presentations: Coco Fusco (biography/criticisms); Sistren Theatre Collective (biography).
Nov. 11
White Teeth.
Presentation: Zadie Smith (criticisms).
Unit IV: Class Conference
Nov. 18
Pre-Conference Preparation and Planning (weekend of Nov. 22).
Nov. 25
Conference Reflections.
due in my mailbox before 4 p.m.: Conference Paper (Wss 465 section only).
Unit V: Globalizing Feminisms
Dec. 2
FG: Bhatarcharjee, 308-29.
TV: Gunning,203-24; Dutt, 225-46; Alvarez and Candelario, 247-60; Henry, 261-71; Grewal, 501-30.
Presentations: Screening of Warrior Marks; V-Day; ACT-UP; Guerrilla Girls; Amnesty International.
Dec. 9
FG: Guerrero, 101-21.
TV: Carillo, 391-411; Guerrero, 413-39; Lubiano, 441-49; Kaplan, 451-84.
Presentations: Artist(s) in TV.
Due Dec. 16: Final Draft of Seminar Paper (Wss 565/599 sections only).
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