Spring 2006: ENGL/ASRC 472-672
Mondays 6:30-9:30pm; Uris Hall G28
Elizabeth DeLoughrey
Department of English, GS 250
Office Hrs: T/R 2-3pm, GS 265
emd23@cornell.edu
Ph. 255-3411
Class Blackboard site:
http://blackboard.cornell.edu
This interdisciplinary course examines theories
of globalization and modernity in relation to
the cultural production of the Caribbean and
Pacific Islands. By drawing upon diverse fields such as cultural, environmental, literary, and
postcolonial studies, we will explore why particular spaces are associated with the production of
history and examine how even the smallest islands have contributed to world modernity. We will
draw from studies in environmental imperialism to complicate the myth of the isolated tropical
isle and place this in a dialogue with contemporary discourses of island tourism. By engaging
what Kamau Brathwaite calls the constant “tidalectic” between land and sea, we’ll consider how
the history and geography of island spaces help deepen our understanding of home, nation, and
transoceanic migration. Derek Walcott’s suggestion that “the sea is history” will be considered in
relation to indigenous, creole, and diaspora island literatures. This course will be taught in
collaboration with the Islands of Globalization project hosted at the University of Hawai’i/East
West Center. During spring break, members of the class will travel to Honolulu to participate in
research activities with the Islands of Globalization team. (See www.movingislands.net)
Required Books
Derek Walcott Omeros
Robert Sullivan Star Waka
J.S. Kanwal The Morning
Patricia Grace Potiki
Ramabai Espinet Swinging Bridge
Jamaica Kincaid A Small Place
Olive Senior Gardening in the Tropics
Epeli Hau’ofa Tales of the Tikongs
Edwidge Danticat Krik?Krak!
Recommended Texts
Haunani-Kay Trask From A Native Daughter (also E-Book)
Haunani-Kay Trask We are not happy Natives (Dvd)
DeLoughrey, Gosson, Handley (eds.) Caribbean Literature and the Environment
Required Films (On reserve at Uris Media Center)
Velvet Dreams (Sima Urale, Video 2262a)
Bitter Cane (Jacques Arcelin, Video 3382)
Life and Debt (Stephanie Black, Videodisc 1002)
Radio Bikini (Robert Stone; Video 677)
Half Life: A Parable for the Nuclear Age (Dennis O'Rourke, Video 1440)
Sacred Vessels: Navigating Tradition & Identity in Micronesia, Vince Diaz, DU500 .S23x 1997
Course Requirements:
20% Class Participation
25% Tri-Weekly Response Papers
15% Final Essay Proposal or Waikiki Report
15% Leading Class Discussion
25% Final Research Project/Essay
20% Class Participation: includes showing up to class on time and prepared, having completed all
readings and film viewings, contributing thoughtful insights to class discussion, participation in chat
sessions, email discussions, and at least one contribution to our blackboard “web resources” page.
25% Tri-Weekly Response Papers: These are 2-3 page (max) response papers that bring two class
assignments (essays, novels, poems, films, etc.) into a thoughtful dialogue that speaks to the overall
concerns of the class. Both readings must be current to our class discussion. The papers can focus on two
articles assigned for the same day, a novel/poem and an article assigned a week apart, but the paper must
be submitted before one of the readings is discussed in class. You may not submit two papers in the same
week. These are short formal papers so they must be well articulated, use textual evidence, and posted to
the class Blackboard site. I encourage you to comment on each others’ papers and to use them as a
foundation for your final essay. Graduate students must submit 5 short papers in all, undergraduates, 3.
Two of these papers must be submitted before the spring break. If you submit more than the required
amount, your lowest grades will be dropped.
15% Leading Class Discussion Each student will sign up for a class discussion session. This means that
you will be in charge of all of the readings for that day. You will summarize some of the main ideas and
select a few connections between texts to get our discussions going. You are encouraged to select
passages from the primary texts to facilitate close readings and create handouts with discussion questions
and pertinent quotes. Maximum 10 minutes each discussant. Handouts should be submitted to the class
blackboard the night before class.
15% Final Essay Proposal This is a 3-5 page proposal for your final project that you may hand in at any
time prior to April 24th (hardcopy). Those traveling to Hawai’i and participating in the Waikiki field trip
can substitute this assignment with a written report of your group project, due April 1st (hardcopy).
25% Final Research Project/Essay This should be a development of your essay proposal and should focus
on one core text from our readings and its significance to the themes of the course. (If you did not submit
a proposal, email me a one-paragraph description of your final essay for approval and feedback by May
2.) Grads must submit a 15-20 page final essay, undergrads 10-15pp. All essays are due May 19th and
must be submitted in hardcopy to my mailbox. Due to my sabbatical schedule, I cannot accept requests
for extensions or incompletes.
Note on the readings/films:
The reading list for this class is extensive; we have to do justice to two regions, their histories, literatures,
contemporary struggles with globalization as well as the ongoing discourse of postcolonial, indigenous,
and globalization studies. Please do your best to read everything before class.
All required films are on reserve at Uris Library and must be seen before class.
Because E-Books (explained below) have limitations on the number of people who can check them out
online, do get to these readings early to ensure access.
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Undergraduate students can drop one supplementary reading per week and in condensed weeks (i.e. 4, 5,
6, 10, 11 only) may cut back by two secondary readings. If you have any questions about terminology or
any aspects of the readings, do post them to the list as soon as they arise and bring questions to class.
Class Syllabus
E-Book: Full text available online through Cornell Library Catalogue
Muse: Available online through library’s “Project Muse,” electronic database
Pdf: Available electronically through Cornell Library’s Course Reserve under my name
BBpdf Available on Blackboard website
HR=Hardcopy reserve at Uris Library
1. January 23: Introduction to the Course: Islands and Desire
Island myths: Colonials & Castaways
Derek Walcott “The Sea is History” (handout and audio)
Kamau Brathwaite: poems from The Arrivants (handout and audio)
“Pebbles,” “Islands” “Unrighteousness of Mammon”
Rec: AG Hopkins “Globalization: An Agenda for Historians” and “The History of Globalization” in
Globalization in World History (BBpdf)
Film showing: Velvet Dreams
Homework: Join Islands-L by sending the following command to: lyris@cornell.edu
Join Islands-L "your name"
(include the quotation marks, use plain text, do not append signature)
2. January 30: Transatlantic I-lands: Teleconference with UH class
Derek Walcott Omeros (Books 1-2; 1-131); (& in-class audio)
Antonio Benítez-Rojo Introduction to The Repeating Island (1-29) (pdf/BBpdf)
See also: http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/debclass/rojo.htm
Thomas Klak, “Introduction: 13 Theses,” Globalization and Neoliberalism (3-22) (E-Book)
Rec: Kamau Brathwaite: The Arrivants “The Emigrants,” “South” (pdf)
Rec: José Rabasa “Allegories of Atlas” The Postcolonial Studies Reader (BBpdf)
3. February 6: Mapping Atlantic Modernities
Walcott Omeros (Books 3-6; 133-277)
Jerry Brotton “Terrestrial Globalism: Mapping the Globe” (71-89) (pdf/BBpdf)
Peter Hulme “Beyond the Straits: Postcolonial Allegories of the Globe” (41-59) (pdf)
Mary Louise Pratt “Modernity and Periphery: Towards a Global Analysis” (pdf)
Rec: Neil Lazarus “Modernity, Globalization and the West” Nationalism and Cultural Practice
(16-67) (E-Book)
4. February 13 Transoceanic Imaginary: The Black Atlantic
Walcott Omeros conclusion
Andrew Salkey “Middle Passage Anancy” Anancy, Traveller (11-15) (pdf)
Paul Gilroy Introduction to The Black Atlantic (1-40) (pdf)
Edouard Glissant excerpts from Caribbean Discourse (61-7;92-3;104-9;115-17;144-50;221-235)(pdf)
Some parts full text: http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/debclass/glissa1.htm
Glissant excerpts from Poetics of Relation (5-9;11-22;32-35; 205-07) (pdf)
Rec: Roland Robertson “Globalization as a Problem” (8-31) “World Systems Theory, Culture, and
Images of World Order”(61-83) Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (E-Book)
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Rec: Richard Harris “Globalization and Globalism in Latin America and the Caribbean” (171-6) (pdf)
5. February 20: Transoceanic Imaginary: Pacific Voyagers
Selections from Robert Sullivan Star Waka
Selections from Teresia Teaiwa Searching from Nei’Nimanoa
(Preface, Travellers, For Salome, No one is an Island, Misplaced Native (HR)
Albert Wendt “Towards a New Oceania” South Pacific Literature (9-19) (pdf)
Epeli Hau’ofa “Our Sea of Islands” (BBpdf)
Paul Sharrad “Imagining the Pacific” Meanjin (597-605) (pdf)
T. Teaiwa “Native Thoughts: Pacific Studies Take on Cultural Studies and Diaspora” (15-32) (pdf)
Rec: Katerina Teaiwa “Our Sea of Phosphate” Indigenous Diasporas (169-189)(pdf)
Rec: The Contemporary Pacific on “The Oceanic Imaginary” Spring 2001 (Muse)
Rec: Wilson and Dirlik, Introduction to Asia/Pacific as space of cultural production
Rec: The Navigators
6. February 27: Indenture and Plantation: Teleconference with Jon Okamura, Ethnic Studies, UH
J.S. Kanwal The Morning (Savera)
In class film showing: Bitter Sweet Hope (excerpts)
Subramani “The End of Free States: on Transnationalization of Culture” (146-162) (pdf)
Ali Behdad “On Globalization, Again” (62-78) (pdf)
Timothy Brennan “From development to globalization: postcolonial studies and globalization theory” in
Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies (pdf)
Rec: Vijay Mishra “The Diasporic Imaginary and the Indian Diaspora” (1-25) (pdf)
Rec: Epeli Hau’ofa “The Ocean in Us” (pdf)
Recommended: March 3-4 Indigenous Cartographies Conference at the Society for the Humanities
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/mapping/index.html
7. March 6 Militarism and Militourism: Visit by Vicente Diaz, University of Michigan
Film: Sacred Vessels, Vicente Diaz
Diaz and Kauanui “Native Pacific Cultural Studies on the Edge” Contemporary Pacific (Muse)
Hone Tuwhare “No Ordinary Sun” (pdf)
Witi Ihimaera “Wiwi, or if New Zealand was the Centre of the World” (BBPdf)
Teresia Teaiwa “bikinis and other s/pacific n/oceans.” Voyaging… Contemporary Pacific (pdf)
Films: Radio Bikini and Half life: A parable for the nuclear age (see before class)
Terenesia “Bad Coconuts” (in class audio)
Rec: Andrew Salkey Anancy, Traveller “Holocaust Anancy” “Anancy & the Land of the Super-I,”
“Face up Race thing” (HR)
8. March 13: Hawai’i: Indigeneity and militourism: Teleconference with UH class
Selections from Haunani-Kay Trask From A Native Daughter “Introduction,” “New World Order,” &
“Lovely Hula Hands” (E-Book and in campus book store)
Haunani-Kay Trask cd-rom, choose selections, We are not happy Natives (in-class exercise)
Held& McGrew “The Expanding Reach of Organized Violence” in Global Transformations (pdf)
Cynthia Enloe “On the Beach: Sexism and Tourism” Bananas, Beaches and Bases (E-Book)
Rec: Ferguson and Turnbull, Introduction and “Traffic in Tropical Bodies” from Oh Say Can You
See, The Semiotics of the Military in Hawai’i (BBpdf)
Rec: Smith, Burke, and Ward “Globalisation and Indigenous Peoples” (1-24) (BBpdf)
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Rec: Waikiki website: www.downwindproductions.com
March 20: Spring Break: Trip to the University of Hawai’i at Manoa/East-West Center
Activities: Film screening of An Island Invaded with director Esther Figueroa; Film Screening of Noho
Hewa Ma Hawai’i Nei with director Keala Kelly; Tour of The Hawaiian Studies Center, Makua Valley,
and the Waipahu Plantation Village; Waikiki Exercise, Attending Albert Wendt’s “The Songmaker’s
Chair” at Kumu Kahua Theatre.
Rec. Reading: Milton Murayama All I asking for is my body; Albert Wendt The Songmaker’s Chair
9. March 27: Class Rescheduled to Wednesday, March 29, 630-930pm *Meet in Olin Library 603
Island Ecologies: Caribbean
Olive Senior Gardening in the Tropics
Introduction to Caribbean Literature and the Environment (BBpdf)
Selections from Jamaica Kincaid My Garden (Book) (BBpdf)
Richard Grove Green Imperialism: Introduction (1-15) (pdf)
Rec: Grove, “Edens, islands, and early empires” (16-72) (pdf/HR)
Rec. film: Landscape and Memory: Martinican Land-History-People
Rec: Richard Grove: The Culture of Islands http://ecoethics.net/hsev/200004txt.htm
10. April 3 Island Ecologies: Pacific *Meet in Olin Library 603
Patricia Grace Potiki
Sudesh Mishra “No Sign is an Island” (337-343) (pdf)
Anna Tsing “The Global Situation” Cultural Anthropology (327-355)(pdf)
Anna Tsing Introduction to Friction (1-18)(BBpdf)
Larry Lohman “Resisting Green Globalism” Global Ecology (157-167) (Pdf)
Rec: Lockwood “The Global Imperative and Pacific Island Societies” Globalization & Cultre
Chnge (pdf)
Rec film: Living on Islands (Hawai’i)
11. April 10 Creolization & Hybridity: Viranjini Munasinghe, Dept of Anthropology
Ramabai Espinet Swinging Bridge
Viranjini Munasinghe “Creolization and Globalization in Trinidad” (BBpdf)
Jan Pieterse Globalization as Hybridization Globalization Reader (99-105)(pdf)
Edouard Glissant and Kamau Brathwaite “A Dialogue: Nation Language and the Poetics of
Creolization” Creole Presence in the Caribbean and Latin America (BBpdf)
Mimi Sheller “Creolization in global culture” Consuming the Caribbean (BBpdf)
Chris Bongie “Within the Shady Hold of Modernity” (3-24) Islands and Exiles (pdf)
Rec: Bongie “A Glow of After-Memory” Islands and Exiles (pdf)
Date to be announced: Film Showing: Bitter Cane English Lounge 258
12. April 17 Globalization-Haiti: Charles Venator Santiago, Dept of Politics, Ithaca College
Film: Bitter Cane
Edwidge Danticat Krik?Krak!: “Children of the Sea” “1937” “Missing Peace” &
“Epilogue: Women Like Us”
Michel-Rolph Trouillot “The Perspective of the World: Globalization Then and Now” (pdf)
Hilary Beckles "Capitalism, Slavery and Caribbean Modernity" Callaloo (Muse)
Gibson-Graham “Querying Globalization” (BBpdf)
Carla Freman “Is Global: Local Male: Female?” (BBpdf)
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Rec: Sidney Mintz Sugar and Sweetness
April 20: Talk by Kamala Kempadoo on Sex tourism and the Caribbean at I.C.
13. April 24 Globalization & Caribbean Tourism
Film: Life and Debt
Jamaica Kincaid A Small Place
M Nourbese Philip “A Piece of Land Surrounded” (41-46) (pdf)
Dionne Brand “Sketches in Transit…Going Home” Sans Souci and other stories (pdf)
Brathwaite: The Namsetoura Papers/Cowpastor site: http://www.tomraworth.com/wordpress/
Cheryl Shanks “Nine Quandaries of Tourism” online:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~drclas/publications/revista/Tourism/shanks.html
Mimi Sheller “Natural Hedonism: The Invention of Caribbean Islands as Tropical Playgrounds”
http://www.scsonline.freeserve.co.uk/olv2p7.pdf
Rec: M. Jacqui Alexander ‘Erotic autonomy as a politics of decolonization…the Bahamas tourist
economy’ Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures (BBpdf)
Rec: Enloe “Carmen Miranda on My Mind” Bananas, Beaches and Bases (E-Book)
Rec: Andrew Salkey “Island of Hope” Anancy, Traveller (HR)
14. May 1. Globalization and Pacific Development * Class held in Olin Library 603
Epeli Hau’ofa Tales of the Tikongs
Firth “The Pacific Islands and the Globalization Agenda” The Contemporary Pacific (Muse)
Stewart-Harawira New Imperial Order: Indigenous Responses to Globalization Introduction (1-27) and
Chpt 7 “Global Governance and the Return of Empire” (BBpdf)
T. Teaiwa “On Analogies: Rethinking the Pacific in a Global Context” Contemporary Pacific (Muse)
Simon Gikandi, "Globalization and the Claims of Postcoloniality," SAQ (Muse)
O’Brien and Szeman “The Globalization of Fiction/The Fiction of Globalization” SAQ (Muse)
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Additional Resources
Recommended Films (Send one paragraph of commentary to Islands-L for extra credit)
Landscape and Memory: Martinican Land-History-People; Gosson and Faden, Video 3241
Living on Islands; Victoria Keith, Olin DU623.25 .L58 1997
Ancestors in the Americas: coolies, sailors, settlers; Long Ding, Olin Video 1872
Back to the roots; Dana Naone Hall & Victoria Keith, Olin SB211.T2 B33 1994
Then there were none; Elizabeth Kapu`uwailani Lindsey, Olin DU624.65 .T44 1996
Sugar slaves: the history of Australia's slave trade; Olin Video 3252
Black harvest; Robin Anderson and Bob Connolly, Olin Video 936
Derek Walcott; Tony Knox, Africana Video 464
The Navigators Video 982
Advertising Missionaries (on order)
Kilim Taem (or order)
Online
Islands of Globalization home page: www.movingislands.net
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Website: http://islands.unep.ch/
Global Islands Network http://www.globalislands.net/
Special issue on Island Studies TESG: Journal of Economic and Social Geography. 95:3 (2004).
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/tesg
Special issue on Island Studies Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/geob/2003/00000085/00000004
Special issue of Public Culture on globalization, Ed. Appadurai
http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.library.cornell.edu:2048/journals/public_culture/toc/pc12.1.html
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