English and drama

Decolonisation: Writing, Literature, Politics

Module code: Q3309
Level 6
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Lecture
Assessment modes: Coursework

‘Decolonisation’ has become an important process and central debate across the educational, cultural, and heritage sectors. This module will explore the varied histories and material realities of decolonisation.

In this module, we’ll explore:

  • a wide variety of texts, including short stories, films, poetry, music, visual art, theory, and drama
  • the connections between decolonisation and literature
  • the complex relationships between writing, identity, and race.

Module learning outcomes

  • Understand a range of theoretical, political and cultural developments, associated with the specific contexts (historical, geographic, socio-economic, cultural et al) of artists and thinkers from the Global South.
  • Demonstrate a contextually-grounded knowledge of a range of literary and artistic practices that have emerged from the Global South since the end of WWII, across a number of genres and media.
  • Reflect on the interrelationships between the literature of the period and the visual, musical, philosophical and technological cultures of the Global South.
  • Explore the relationship between creative and critical writing, in the context of the production, circulation, consumption and reception of cultural work from the region throughout the period.
  • Think comparatively about the decolonising agenda as it plays out differently on campuses in the Global North and South.
  • Demonstrate contextually-informed close reading skills appropriate to works that have been written from the Global South, and for which there is a limited extant body of critical work.