Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики»
Программа дисциплины «Постколониальная теория» для направления 033000.62 «Культурология»
подготовки бакалавра
1. COURSE DESCRIPTION
a. TITLE OF A COURSE: “POSTCOLONIAL THEORY”
Programme Author: Arseniy Khitrov, candidate of sciences in philosophy, is an
assistant professor in cultural studies at the NRU HSE.
Office: Maly Trekhsvyatitelsky pereulok, 8/2, room 312 (Thursdays and Fridays, with
appointment)
akhitrov@hse.ru
b. PRE-REQUISITES: NONE
c. COURSE TYPE: COMPULSORY
d. ABSTRACT
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. 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.
2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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.
3. LEARNING OUTCOMES
After these course students will be able to understand different approaches to culture,
nationalism, multiculturalism, migration, gender and race in the context of postcolonial societies.
4. COURSE PLAN
1
Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики»
Программа дисциплины «Постколониальная теория» для направления 033000.62 «Культурология»
подготовки бакалавра
N
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Topic
Total
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
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
Lectures
1.
Colonialism, post(-)colonialism, neocolonialism. Postcolonial theory & postcolonial
studies. Foundations of postcolonial theory. Critical theory or ideology critique. Marx,
Nietzsche, and Freud on people’s hidden motives.
2.
Capitalism and imperialism. Motyl on the empire.
3.
The history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Racism.
4.
The trans-Atlantic slave trade and literature. Nationalism.
5.
Formation of Afro-American identities.
6.
Animals and colonialism.
Seminars
1. Orientalism: Knowledge and Power
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random
House, 1979, P. 1-28.
2
Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики»
Программа дисциплины «Постколониальная теория» для направления 033000.62 «Культурология»
подготовки бакалавра
2. Orientalism: Knowledge and Power
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random
House, 1979, P. 201-225.
3. Orientalism: Knowledge and Power
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Random House, 1993, P. 80-96,
111-132.
4. Orientalism: Knowledge and Power
Said, Edward W. “Orientalism Reconsidered.” Cultural Critique 1 (1985): 89–107.
Print.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. London: Pinguin, 2003. P. xi-xxiv.
Said, Edward W. “Orientalism Once More.” Development and Change 35.5 (2004):
869–879. Print.
Эткинд А. Дыра в картине мира: почему колониальные авторы писали о России,
а постколониальные нет // Ab Imperio, 1, 2011. С. 99-116.
5. Subaltern Studies
Moore-Gilbert, B. J. Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics. London; New
York: Verso, 1997. P. 74-113 (Chapter 3 "Gayatri Spivak: the deconstructive twist").
6. Derrida on national communities
Leonard, Philip. Between Poststructuralism and Postcolonial Theory: Rethinking
National Identity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. P. 20-50 (Chapter 2.
‘Before, Across, and Beyond’: Derrida, Without National Community).
7. Franz Fanon and hybridity
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. London: Pluto Press, 2008. P. 109-140.
8. Hybridity, mimicry, ambivalence: Homi Bhabha
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London; New York: Routledge, 1994.
Print. P. 66-83.
9. Russian postcolonialism
Gerasimov, Ilya, Sergey Glebov, and Marina Mogilner. “The Postimperial Meets the
Postcolonial: Russian Historical Experience and the Postcolonial Moment.” Ab
Imperio 2013.2 (2013): 97–135.
5. READING LIST
a. REQUIRED
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.
3
Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики»
Программа дисциплины «Постколониальная теория» для направления 033000.62 «Культурология»
подготовки бакалавра
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.
Empire speaks out: languages of rationalization and self-description in the Russian
Empire. Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2009. 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.
Gerasimov, Ilia. Modernism and public reform in late imperial Russia: rural
professionals and self-organization, 1905-30. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ;
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.
Gerasimov, Ilya, Sergey Glebov, and Marina Mogilner. “The Postimperial Meets the
Postcolonial: Russian Historical Experience and the Postcolonial Moment.” Ab
Imperio 2013.2 (2013): 97–135. 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 Postcolonial 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 Pre-Occupation 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.
4
Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики»
Программа дисциплины «Постколониальная теория» для направления 033000.62 «Культурология»
подготовки бакалавра
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random
House, 1979. Print.
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Random House, 1993. 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.
Герасимов И. В. Нулевые. Степень. Письма. Новое издательство, Москва, 2009.
Глебов С. В. Евразийство между империей и модерном: история в документах
Новое издательство, Москва, 2010.
Изобретение империи: языки и практики. Новое издательство, Москва, 2011.
Империя и нация в зеркале исторической памяти. Новое издательство, Москва,
2011.
Конфессия, империя, нация: религия и проблема разнообразия в истории
постсоветского пространства. Новое издательство, Москва, 2012.
Мифы и заблуждения в изучении империи и национализма. Новое издательство,
Москва, 2010.
Новая имперская история постсоветского пространства: Сборник статей.
Казань, 2004.
Регион в истории империи: исторические эссе о Сибири. Новое издательство,
Москва, 2013.
Там, внутри. Практики внутренней колонизации в культурной истории России:
Сб. статей /Под ред. А. Эткинда, Д. Уффельманна, И. Кукулина. М.: Новое
литературное обозрение, 2012.
Тлостанова, М. “Жить Никогда, Писать Ниоткуда.” Постсоветская литература и
эстетика транскультрации. М., УРСС. 2004.
Эткинд, А. Внутренняя колонизация. Имперский опыт России. М.: Новое
литературное обозрение, 2013.
b. OPTIONAL
Anker, Peder. Imperial Ecology Environmental Order in the British Empire, 18951945. 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 AntiWesternism. 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
5
Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики»
Программа дисциплины «Постколониальная теория» для направления 033000.62 «Культурология»
подготовки бакалавра
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, 1730-1830. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. 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. All literature is available via LMS.
6
Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики»
Программа дисциплины «Постколониальная теория» для направления 033000.62 «Культурология»
подготовки бакалавра
6. Grading System
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.
7
7. GUIDELINES FOR KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT
Comments on texts and comments on seminars should:
 be posted on LMS in time;
 be well-structured, logical, and clearly written (50% of the grade will be of the structure and
logic of the answer);
 be started with a clear question and be finished with a clear answer of this question;
 demonstrate a student’s ability to analyse critically issues that we dealt with during our
seminars and lectures;
 rely on concepts and theories that we have studied throughout the course;
 be a student’s own critical and well-argued judgments, not a detailed exposition of theories.
8. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
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.
9. SPECIAL EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE SUPPORT (IF REQUIRED)
Not required.