Postcolonial Theory

This course will go over some philosophical and interpretative problems raised by recent works in a field described as ‘postcolonial theory’. It will start with the original debates about ‘Orientalism’ – particularly its critical arguments about the question of representation of the Orient in art and literature, the question of the writing of history, and the logic of basic concepts in the social sciences. The course will analyse some ‘Orientalist’ texts in detail, assess the criticisms offered by postcolonial writers, and take up these three problems – of representation, history and conceptualization for detailed, rigorous critical discussion.