English 607 Topic 54 - Literary Theory: Poststructuralism and Postcolonialism

Winter 2010
Monday 9:00 am - 11:30 am
Instructor:  Dr. Clara Joseph
cjoseph [at] ucalgary [dot] ca

Course Description:

This course considers poststructuralism and postcolonialism in the context of the writings of Mahatma Gandhi and Emmanuel Levinas, the latter a guru of Jacques Derrida but significantly more comprehensible.  Gandhi's philosophy of "Truth" and Levinas' "ethics of the face of the other" challenge poststructuralist and postcolonial theories that assume that language and culture are prior to and determine meaning.  Humanism (as practiced by Gandhi and Levinas) on the other hand makes sense of ultimate meaning in more essential ways, outside of cultural determinism.  Students will, therefore, have the opportunity to pose the two part thesis question:

1. Does not the poststructuralist and postcolonial emphasis on language and culture over meaning undermine the humanist goal of redemption (or freedom from oppression) in the theories of both Gandhi and Levinas?

2. What are the implications of this question for a study of poststructural and postcolonial theories?

Students will consider poststructural and postcolonial theories in the context of Gandhi's and Levinas' theories through readings of original and secondary texts.  They will learn the relationship between literary criticism and literary theory and be guided in applying literary criticism to theory so as to approve, modify, or challenge a theoretical thesis.  This, the instructor believes, is an excellent way to develop a methodology for any research paper including a masters thesis or a dissertation.  

Aravind Adiga's Booker winning novel, The White Tiger, which holds a shockingly unethical yet embarrassingly endearing narrator, will facilitate engagement with representations of Truth (Gandhi) and of the ethics of the face of the other (Levinas).  This creative piece and a wide variety of shorter pieces from Victor Ramraj's Concert of Voices will be used to apply and, in turn, challenge the studied theories. 

Reading List (tentative):

Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger (the Booker winning novel of 2008)
Ramraj, Victor. Concert of Voices (an anthology of short poems, stories, plays, and essays from different parts of the world)
A course pack of readings on Gandhi, Levinas, and other poststructuralist and postcolonial theorists including Althusser, Bhabha, Culler, Derrida, etc.