ENGL 444: STUDIES IN WOMENS WRITING AND FEMINIST THEORY GENDER AND POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE COURSE INFORMATION: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tuesday

and Thursday 11:35-12:55 in EDUC 613 Professor Monica Popescu Office: Arts 105 Phone: (514) 398-6549 E-mail: monica.popescu@mcgill.ca Office hours: Tuesday 4:10-6:10 pm COURSE DESCRIPTION -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In her book Woman, Native, Other, Trinh Minh-Ha criticizes of essentialism with which women from the Third World are treated by the West: with special readings, seminars, and workshops dedicated to the native woman, it is as if everywhere we go, we become Someones private zoo. Trinhs outburst highlights the uneasy yet attractive alliances between feminists in the West and those in the rest of the world and between postcolonial studies and gender scholarship. Starting from these convergences, in this course we will discuss the differences between Western feminism and womanism and we will trace the evolution of forms of femininity and masculinity in various colonial and neocolonial contexts, with a focus on Africa and the Caribbean. We will talk about the relationship between women and their bodies, ideas of beauty, rebellion and conformity. We will equally explore normative and subversive forms of masculinity, and the role of states in creating willing soldiers. Theoretical readings by Sara Suleri, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Luce Irigaray, bell hooks, Frantz Fanon will help us to think about relations between mothers and daughters, love in a time of dictatorship, sexuality, violence inscribed on the female body, and representations of women. COURSE MATERIALS: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Required texts: available from the McGill Bookstore: Course pack (2 volumes): Vol 1: articles and shorter literary texts; Vol 2: one out-ofprint text: Lewis Nkosi Mating Birds Tsitsi Dangarembga: Nervous Conditions Mark Behr: The Smell of Apples Michelle Cliff: No Telephone to Heaven Edwidge Danticat: The Farming of Bones Jamaica Kincaid: Annie John Ama Ata Aidoo: Our Sister Killjoy

On reserve in the library: The Battle of Algiers. Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo Faat Kine. Dir. Ousmane Sembene Reassamblage. Dir. Trinh T. Minh-ha U-Carmen eKhayelitsha. Dir. Mark Dornford-May Screenings will be scheduled several days before the films are slated to be discussed in class. Course website: On WebCT Vista you will find information about the course, a copy of the syllabus, author biographies and photos, maps, links, discussion forum, etc. COURSE REQUIREMENTS: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A) 20 %: Article review. 3 pages. Choose an article from those slated for review. The paper is due in class on the day the text is scheduled for discussion. Your review should include a concise summary of the article, an evaluation of the argument (with its positive and negative aspects), and an outline of its applicability to one of the texts discussed in class (preferably the weeks reading). An electronic sign-up sheet will be posted on WebCT during the second week of classes. B) 30 %: Mid-term exam (in-class)Thursday, November 4 C) 35 %: Final paper: Research essays should be 8-10 pages in length, MLA format, due on December 2. Paper topics and more detailed instructions will be available on webct by the second month of the term. D) 15 % Class discussion, participation, and webct assignments: a) Attend classes consistently (more than three (3) absences will lower your mark). Read assigned texts thoroughly, prior to class time. Take notes on your readings and formulate questions before coming to class. Participate in in-class discussions with well-thought arguments (7%). In addition, you will have to post a minimum of 2 responses on the course website throughout the semester (WebCT Vista: http://webctvista.mcgill.ca/), each of them about 2 paragraphs in length (250-400 words maximum). The posts will be in response to the weekly question listed under the discussion section. You should aim to critically engage your colleagues responses, add insight, or extend the argument to a different part of the readings. These responses should be posted by Monday of every week, 8 pm. (8%) POLICIES: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Students should retain a copy of all submitted assignments. Academic Integrity: McGill University values academic integrity. All students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures. Please consult

the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures, available from the office of the Dean of Students, or the website at www.mcgill.ca/integrity. Cases of plagiarism will be reported to the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts, in keeping with University policy. Students with Disabilities: The University accommodates students with disabilities through the Office for Students with Disabilities in consultation with the English Department. Please speak with me about special arrangements you might require for exams, papers, or instruction. Religious Observances: McGills Policy for the Accommodation of Religious Observances recognizes and respects the diversity of its members, including diversity of religious faiths and observances. Students who because of religious commitment cannot meet academic obligations, other than final examinations, on certain holy days are responsible for informing their instructor, with two weeks notice of each conflict. When the requested accommodation concerns a final examination, students are responsible for advising their Faculty office as soon as possible and not later than the deadline for reporting conflicts. Additional documentation confirming their religious affiliation may be requested. For more information see http://www.mcgill.ca/student-records/holydays/. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED. Failure to submit an assignment by the deadline will result in the assignment being graded from 77 points instead of 100, during the first five days. After five days the respective assignment will not be accepted and will receive 0 points. Missed assignments will be given a new deadline only in cases of medical or family emergencies, and only when supported by a doctors note (from the McGill health system) or a note from an advisor at the Student Affairs Office. The deadline for handing in such a note is one week from the missed assignment. COURSE SCHEDULE: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thursday, September 2: Introduction Representing Veiled Women Tuesday, September 7 Edward Saidfrom Orientalism (CP) Orientalist paintings and postcards (on webct) Thursday, September 9 Leila Ahmed The Discourse of the Veil. Assia Djebar Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (webct) Tuesday, September 14 Frantz Fanon Algeria Unveiled (CP) The Battle of Algiers. Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo (check webct for screening date and time)

Criminalizing Black Men Thursday, September 16 Lewis NkosiMating Birds Frantz Fanonfrom Black Skin White Masks Introduction and The Fact of Blackness (CP) Tuesday, September 21 Lewis NkosiMating Birds (continued) Ann Laura Stoler Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in Twentieth-Century Colonial Cultures (CP) The Psychopathology of Colonialism Thursday, September 23 Tsitsi DangarembgaNervous Conditions Frantz Fanon Selections from Colonial War and Mental Disorders (webct) Tuesday, September 28 Tsitsi Dangarembga--Nervous Conditions (continued) Rita Barnard Contesting Beauty (CP) Men and Women at War Thursday, September 30 Chinua Achebe Girls at War (CP) Joan Nagel Masculinity and Nationalism Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations (CP) Tuesday, October 5 Ben Okri In the Shadow of War, Laughter under the Bridge (CP) Thursday, October 7 Mark BehrThe Smell of Apples Mark Behr South Africa: Living in the Fault Lines (webct) Anne McClintock No Longer in a Future Heaven: Gender, Race and Nationalism (CP) Tuesday, October 12 Mark BehrThe Smell of Apples (continued) Michiel Heyns Fathers and Sons: Structures of Erotic Patriarchy in Afrikaans Writing of the Emergency (CP) Empowering Women Thursday, October 14 Ousmane SembeneFaat Kine (see screening schedule) Sara Suleri Woman Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition. (CP)

Tuesday, October 19 Ousmane SembeneFaat Kine (continued) Carole Boyce Davies Some Notes on African Feminism (CP) Lauretta Ngcobo African Motherhood Myth and Reality (CP) Gender and Revolution Thursday, October 21 Michelle CliffNo Telephone to Heaven Chandra Talpade Mohanty Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses (CP) Tuesday, October 26 Michelle CliffNo Telephone to Heaven (continued) Supplementary reading: Ranajit Guha The Prose of Counter-insurgency Racialized Bodies Thursday, October 28 Edwidge DanticatThe Farming of Bones Gloria Anzaldua The Homeland, Aztln, La conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness (CP) Tuesday, November 2 Edwidge DanticatThe Farming of Bones (continued) Thursday, November 4: Midterm exam The Ethnographic Eye Tuesday, November 9 Trinh Minh-haReassamblage (see screening schedule) Trinh Minh-ha Not You/Like You: Postcolonial Women and the Interlocking Questions of Identity and Difference (CP) Mothers and Daughters Thursday, November 11 Jamaica KincaidAnnie John Luce Irigaray The Bodily Encounter with the Mother (webct) Tuesday, November 16 Jamaica KincaidAnnie John (CP)

The Encounter with Europe Thursday, November 18 Ama Ata AidooOur Sister Killjoy bell hooks Sisterhood: Political Solidarity between Women Tuesday, November 23 Ama Ata AidooOur Sister Killjoy (continued) Ama Ata Aidoo To Be an African Woman Writer an Overview and a Detail (CP) Class and Gender Thursday, November 25 Sistren Theater CollectiveQPH (CP) Chandra Talpade Mohanty Women Workers and Capitalist Scripts: Ideologies of Domination, Common Interests, and the Politics of Solidarity Tuesday, November 30 Sistren Theater CollectiveQPH (continued) Thursday, December 2 U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (see screening schedule) Conclusions NB: The schedule for the last two weeks of class may be revised.