Course info
ELCS0098: Cultural Translation and Postcolonial Theory (18/19)
ELCS0098(UG)/ELCS0000(PG) - Cultural Translation and Postcolonial Theory
UG Value: 15 UCL credits / 0.5 course unit / 7.5 ECTS PG Value: 30 credits
Level: Final Year (Level 6) PG (Level 7) Total Learning Hours: 150 (UG) /
300 (PG) Term: Term 2 Academic Year: 2018/19 Tutor: Dr Azzedine Haddour
Teaching structure: UG Assessment: One 3-hour written exam (100%
weighting)) Module Description: This course focuses on three case
studies in which authors appropriate the work of other authors or artists
as a means of aesthetic and political expression. In the first case,
students will have occasion to study Césaire’s appropriation of
Shakespeare’s The Tempest in A Tempest; in the second, Coetzee’s
interpretation of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in Foe; in the third,
Djebar’s adaptation of the painting of Delacroix Women of Algiers¸ as
well as of Picasso’s thirteen paintings which have the same title, in her
récit Women of Algiers in Their Apartment. This comparative and
interdisciplinary course engages with the cultural politics of citation,
interpretation and translation of canonical texts. It aims to explore the
ubiquitous presence of the institution of slavery and colonialism in
literature. The course is designed to: i) address the issues of race,
writing and cultural difference; ii) introduce students to postcolonial
theory and iii) provide them with critical tools to analyze the
relationship between power and representation. This module will allow
students to explore the relation between language and national and cultural
borders, as writers embed questions of language in the very practice of
their writing. Literary texts from a range of geographic, cultural and
political contexts will be read alongside critical and theoretical debates
at the intersection of several disciplinary perspectives: postcolonial
studies, transnational studies, comparative literature, world literature
and translation theory. The module aims to introduce students to
postcolonial theory and provide them with critical tools to analyse the
relationship between power and representation. By the end of the module,
students will be conversant with key aspects of postcolonial theory, they
will be able to engage critically with different cultural forms, and to
relate them to their historical context. The module will help students
improve their ability to think critically about the sources used in
interdisciplinary research, and to integrate textual and visual sources in
their research. Primary Texts: John Maxwell, Coetzee, FoeDaniel Defoe,
Robinson CrusoeWilliam Shakespeare, The TempestAimé Césaire, Une Tempête
(A Tempest)Eugène Delacroix, Women of AlgiersPablo Picasso, Women of
AlgiersAssia Djebar, Women of Algiers in Their Apartment Initial
Secondary Bibliography: Octave Mannoni, Prospero and Caliban: The
Psychology of ColonizationEdward Said, OrientalismAlbert Memmi, The
Colonizer and the ColonizedFrantz Fanon, Black Skin, White MasksFrantz
Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Course contacts
Tutor
AH