Comparative Postcolonialisms: Parody, Plagiarism, Poco

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. (Seminar). This course examines practices of literary plagiarism, piracy, kidnapping, reproduction, falsification and other disparaged textual activities to consider their implication in the power/knowledge complex of (neo)imperial international relations under current capitalist copyright and intellectual property regimes that constitute the so-called “World Republic of Letters.” In its attention to translinguistic and transnational examples of “copy writing,” this course goes beyond the “Empire Writes Back” version of intertextuality that has characterized so many studies of the postcolonial novel, in which “non-Western” literature is read simply as a derivative response to the European canon. We will study cases that involve “trafficking” in texts across linguistic and national boundaries to analyze historical, cultural, socio-economic, political and theoretical notions of authorship, originality, and (trans-)textuality as they intersect with colonialism and postcolonialism and as they are being negotiated in legal and literary conventions in the contemporary era of cultural-economic globalization. Likely authors: Marcel Bénabou, Tahar ben Jelloun, Calixthe Beyala, Jorge Luis Borges, Peter Carey, Miguel de Cervantes, Bessie Head, Norma Khouri, Wanda Koolmatrie, Camara Laye, Mario Roberto Morales, Yambo Ouologuem, Caryl Phllips, Ricardo Piglia, Alice Randall, Spider Robinson, Ousmane Sembène. Application instructions: E-mail Professor Slaughter (jrs272@columbia.edu) by noon on Tuesday, November 6th, with the subject heading, “Plagiarism.” In your message, include basic information: your name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking this course.