“POSTCOLONIAL THEORY”
ARSENIY KHITROV
akhitrov@hse.ru
Office: Maly Trekhsvyatitelsky pereulok, 8/2, room 312 (Thursdays and Fridays, with
appointment)
I. OVERVIEW OF TEACHING AIMS AND METHODS
1. PROGRAMME AUTHOR
Arseniy Khitrov, candidate of sciences in philosophy, is an assistant professor in
cultural studies at the NRU HSE.
2. SUMMARY
This module aims to introduce students to Postcolonial Theory. The module will
provide students with basic categories and research methods of Postcolonial Studies
as an academic discipline that analyzes, explains, and responds to the cultural legacies
of colonialism and imperialism.
3. EDUCATIONAL AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE
Educational aims:
 To introduce students to major theories of postcolonialism;
 To provide students with basic categories and research methods of
contemporary postcolonial studies;
 To teach students to apply this knowledge to their research.
Educational objectives:
 To teach students to critically assess philosophical and sociological texts;
 To teach students to apply key philosophical and sociological categories
correctly;
 To sustain a reasoned argument backed-up with relevant evidence;
 To communicate their own ideas and respond to others in discussion;
 To work in groups.
4. ORIGINAL TEACHING METHODS
I divide the audience into 2-3 groups and give each group 20-25 minutes to prepare 1
critical statement about the texts recommended for the seminar and 3-4 critical
questions for the other groups. Questions must start with words ‘how’, ‘why’ and
never with ‘who’, ‘what’, or ‘when’, so that the answer would not be an exposition of
texts but students’ own reasoning. The rest of the seminar is staged as an exchange of
critical statements and questions between the groups accompanied with the teacher’s
comments.
During the course every student has to post 1 comment on one particular seminar and
1 comment on any comment on the other concrete seminar. This task aims at
provoking students to critically assess judgments of their fellow-students.
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II. THE COURSE'S CONTENT
1. ORIGINALITY OF THE COURSE
The course deals with issues that are at the core of on-going debates in contemporary
cultural studies and critical theory. It explores postcolonialism as an academic
discipline with its special theoretical and research methods that analyze, explain, and
respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism. After these course
students will be able to understand different approaches to culture, nationalism,
multiculturalism, migration, gender and race in the context of post-colonial societies.
Two courses on postcolonial theory have been taught already at the School of Cultural
Studies at HSE:
 ‘Postcolonial theory’ by Iliya Inishev (faculty of philosophy, School of
cultural studies, 2010-2011, 2012-2013),1
 ‘Postcolonial studies’ by Alyssa DeBlasio (faculty of philosophy, School of
cultural studies, 2011-2012).2
While composing this programme I took into account those syllabi, however I
modified it according to very recent changes in the discipline and updated the
bibliography section. In doing so, I relied on recent international publications and
recent public activities at international research centers involved in research in
postcolonial studies.3 Additionally, I am going to apply to this course original
teaching methods that have been listed in the section 4 of this document.
There are several courses taught currently at HSE that deal with some issues that my
course covers:
 ‘Society’s public sphere and social communications’ by Natalia Ikonnikova
and Elena Yarskaya-Smirnova (faculty of sociology),4
 ‘Modern research program of Cultural Studies by Galina Zvereva (faculty of
philosophy),5
 ‘Actual problems of cultural studies’ by Michail Mayatski & Arseniy Khitrov
(faculty of philosophy),6
 ‘History of colonialism’ by Apollon Davidson, (faculty of history),7
 ‘Post-imperial syndrome and neo-imperial mind’ by Leonid Gorizontov,
(Institute for the Development of Education),8
 ‘The racial discourse in society and politics’ by Sherbakov Nikolay, (Institute
for the Development of Education),9
1
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/54590295.html
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/34465928.html
3
Postcolonial Studies Association (http://www.postcolonialstudiesassociation.co.uk), The Institute of
Postcolonial Studies (http://ipcs.org.au) Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies
(http://www.sussex.ac.uk/ccps) and others
4
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/54587914.html
5
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/34459182.html
6
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/34463810.html
7
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/57807686.html
8
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/58866556.html
9
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/58865689.html
2
2
 ‘Social symbolism and the policy of representations’ by Nataliya Ikonnikova
(faculty of sociology),10
The major difference between these courses and my course is that while they just
mention postcolonial theory amongst other disciplines that deal with issues of
postcolonial world, my course is focused on postcolonial theory exclusively and aims
at deep analysis of their most fundamental philosophical and historical foundations.
However, none of those courses proposes the same perspective as my module or has a
structure similar to my course.
Therefore, my course can be regarded as an original educational product in the
Russian educational market.
Teaching methods proposed here are based, firstly, on my personal experience of
being a student on the Erasmus Mundus programme “Crossways in Cultural
Narratives” in universities of Sheffield (UK), Tübingen (Germany), and Perpignan
(France) during the 2009-2011 academic years and, secondly, on Professional
Development Programme “Methods of monitoring tests’ design to measure teaching
outcomes” that I attended at HSE from 30.05.2012 till 20.06.2012, and thirdly, on
discussions with colleagues during the workshop “Philosophy in the Contemporary
University” at HSE in St. Petersburg on 15th June 2012.
2. THEMATIC PLAN OF THE COURSE
N
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Topic
Total
Colonialism / postcolonialism:
the basic concepts and themes
of postcolonial theory
(Introduction)
Pathology of colonialism:
Frantz Fanon
Orientalism: Knowledge and
Power (Edward Said)
Imperialism / Nationalism
Subaltern Studies: Gayatri
Spivak, Walter D. Mignolo
Hybridity, mimicry,
ambivalence: Homi Bhabha
The borders and the future of
postcolonial theory
108
Contact hours
Lectures
Seminars
2
2
Students'
independ
ent work
9
3
2
9
5
4
10
5
3
3
3
10
10
3
2
9
3
2
9
24
18
66
III. FULFILLMENT OF COURSE PLAN
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http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/54585589.html
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1. Colonialism / postcolonialism: the basic concepts and themes of postcolonial
theory (Introduction) (2 lectures and 2 seminars)
Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. New York:
Columbia UP, 1998. Print.
Young, Robert J.C. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
Young, Robert J.C. Postcolonialism: A Historical Introduction. Oxford and
Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2001. Print.
Moore-Gilbert, Bart. Postcolonial theory: contexts, practices, politics. London:
Verso, 1997. Print.
Childs, Peter, and Patrick Williams. An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory.
London: Prentice Hall, 1997. Print
2. Pathology of colonialism: Frantz Fanon (3 lectures and 2 seminars)
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 2005. Print.
Fanon, Frantz . Black Skin, White Masks. London: Pluto Press, 2008. Print.
Young, Robert J.C. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2003. Print. p. 1-44.
Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. New York:
Columbia UP, 1998. Print. p. 17-22.
Video:
“Africa addio”. Dir. Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi. 1966
“Hotel “Rwanda”. Dir. Terry George. 2004
3. Orientalism: Knowledge and Power (Edward Said) (5 lectures and 4 seminars)
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon, 1978. Print.
Moore-Gilbert, Bart. Postcolonial theory: contexts, practices, politics. London:
Verso, 1997. Print.
4. Imperialism / Nationalism (5 lectures and 3 seminars)
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined communities. London, New York: Verso, 1991.
Print.
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Random House, 1993.
Print.
Bhabha, Homi. Nation and Narration. London & New York: Routledge, 2003.
Print.
5. Subaltern Studies: Gayatri Spivak, Walter D. Mignolo (3 lectures and 3
seminars)
Spivak, Gayatri Ch. "Can Subaltern speak?" Marxism and the Interpretation of
Culture. Ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg. University of Illinois Press.
1 Oct. 1988. p. 271-313. Print.
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Mignolo, Walter. (Post)Occidentalism, (Post)Coloniality, and (Post)Subaltern
Rationality. The Pre-Occupation of Postcolonial Studies. Ed. Fawzia AfzalKhan and Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks. Durham: Duke UP, 2000. Print.
Moore-Gilbert, Bart. Postcolonial theory: contexts, practices, politics. London:
Verso, 1997. Print.
6. Hybridity, mimicry, ambivalence: Homi Bhabha (3 lectures and 2 seminars)
Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994. Print.
Moore-Gilbert, Bart. Postcolonial theory: contexts, practices, politics. London:
Verso, 1997. Print.
7. The borders and the future of post-colonial theory (3 lectures and 2 seminars)
Hall, Stuart. “When was «The Post-Colonial»?: Thinking at the Limit”. The
Post-colonial Question: Common Skies, Divided Horizons. Ed. L. Curti and I
Chambers. London: Routledge, 1996. Print.
Huggan, Graham. Interdisciplinary Measures. Literature and the Future of
Postcolonial Studies. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2008. Print.
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IV. FORMS OF CONTROL
Cumulative Grade
1
2
Control over the course of the semester
Seminar Grade
Gcurrent
Gseminar
A comment on the text. 500-600
words, posted on LMS before the
beginning of the exam week. 10
grades max.
Gcurrent = Gtest
 Active performance
during the seminar - 1
maximum per seminar;
 Episodic but quality
performance during the
seminar - 0,5;
 Sub-standard (may be
active) performance - 0.
Exam Grade
Independent Work
Grade
No assessments
Final Grade (Goes
into the Diploma)
Gexam
A comment on the
seminar. 500-600
words, posted on
LMS before the
beginning of the
exam week. 10
grades max.
1 q1 = 0,4
q2 = 0,6
2
Оfinal =
q1*Gexam +
q2*Gcummulative
k1=0,5
k2=0,5
Gcummulative= k1*Gcurrent + k2*Gseminar
At the
end:
Gcummulative*
Gexam
Gfinal*
* These grades are subject to rounding.
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Required literature
Aijaz, Ahmad. In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. London; New York: Verso, 1994. Print.
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined communities. London, New York: Verso, 1991. Print.
Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back Theory and Practice in
Post-colonial Literatures. London; New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.
Ashcroft, Bill. Post-colonial Transformation. London; New York: Routledge, 2001. Print.
Bhabha, Homi K. Nation and Narration. London, New York: Routledge, 1990. Print.
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London; New York: Routledge, 1994. Print.
Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors. Oxford; New York:
Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.
Cammack, Richard, Michel Frey, and Robert Robson. Hydrogen as a Fuel: Learning from Nature.
CRC Press, 2002. Print.
Childs, Peter, and Patrick Williams. An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory. London: Prentice
Hall, 1997. Print
Eagleton, Terry et al. Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1990. Print.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. London: Pluto Press, 2008. Print.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 2005. Print.
Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. New York: Columbia UP, 1998. Print.
Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Harvard University Press,
1993. Print.
Hall, Stuart. “When was «The Post-Colonial»?: Thinking at the Limit”. The Post-colonial Question:
Common Skies, Divided Horizons. Ed. L. Curti and I Chambers. London: Routledge, 1996. 242-60.
Print.
Leonard, Philip. Between Poststructuralism and Postcolonial Theory: Rethinking National Identity.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print.
Mbembé, Achille J. On the Postcolony. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Print.
Mignolo, Walter. (Post)Occidentalism, (Post)Coloniality, and (Post)Subaltern Rationality. The PreOccupation of Postcolonial Studies. Ed. Fawzia Afzal-Khan and Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks.
Durham: Duke UP, 2000. Print.
Moore-Gilbert, B. J. Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics. London; New York: Verso,
1997. Print.
Parry, Benita. Postcolonial Studies: a Materialist Critique. London; New York: Routledge, 2004.
Print.
Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation. London; New York:
Routledge, 1992. Print.
Said, Edward W. “Orientalism Once More.” Development and Change 35.5 (2004): 869–879. Print.
Said, Edward W. “Orientalism Reconsidered.” Cultural Critique 1 (1985): 89–107. Print.
Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage books, 1994. Print.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon, 1978. Print.
Spivak, Gayatri Ch. “Can Subaltern speak?” Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Ed. Cary
Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg. University of Illinois Press. 1 Oct. 1988. p. 271-313. Print.
Spivak, Gayatri Ch. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. Print.
Tiffin, Helen. Five Emus to the King of Siam Environment and Empire. Amsterdam; New York:
Rodopi, 2007. Print.
Young, Robert J. C. Colonial Desire. Hoboken: Routledge, 1994. Print.
Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism: A Historical Introduction. Oxford and Malden, Mass.:
Blackwell Publishers, 2001. Print.
Young, Robert J. C. White Mythologies Writing History and the West. London; New York:
Routledge, 2004. Print.
Young, Robert J. C. Post-colonialism: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. Print.
Supplementary literature
Anker, Peder. Imperial Ecology Environmental Order in the British Empire, 1895-1945.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001. Print.
Bhabha, Homi. Nation and Narration. London & New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Buruma, Ian and Avishai Margalit. Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism. London:
Atlantic Books, 2004. Print.
Butler, Judith and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Who Sings the Nation-State? London–New York–
Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2007. Print.
Cixous, Hélène. Stigmata escaping texts. London; New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Dabashi, Hamid. The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism, New York: Zed Books, 2012. Print.
Lenin, Vladimir. Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Peking: Foreign Languages Press,
1970. Print.
Miller, Joseph Calder. Way of Death. Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 17301830. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. Print.
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Random House, 1993. Print.
Szeman, Imre. Zones of Instability: Literature, Postcolonialism, and the Nation. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2003. Print.
There is an on-line version of the course on LMS.
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