CTSJ 350 Melancholy and Ressentiment in the Postcolonial: What Comes After Postcolonialism?
The course will study the transformation of postcolonial theory and practice by contemporary writers and activists in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia in response both to their new social, cultural, political, and economic conditions, as well as to their experience of the limits of earlier forms of postcolonial thought. The course will track the problems posed by the emergent concepts of identity and authenticity and the way that the modalities of melancholia and ressentiment can affect or undermine the postcolonial as a project of liberation. As part of this re-examination, students will explore the complex ways in which Western modes of thinking and politics — including modernism, anti-modernism, Traditionalism and resurgent authoritarian and ethno-racial political forms — shape and are resisted by postcolonial thinkers and activists. The course will advance student understanding of postcolonial theory and practice by pairing (1) a careful examination of foundational works of postcolonial thought within their historical and political contexts, with (2) an exploration of the work of contemporary scholars and activists whose projects transform and reimagine the very idea of the postcolonial.