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Course

Cultures, Texts and Intertext


Summary

The general goals of the course are:

·       To stimulate an understanding of culture from a non-Eurocentric perspective.

·       To examine the coming together of gender, class and critical race theories with postcolonial studies. 

·       To identify the different languages of postcolonial cinema. 

 

The specific goals of the course are:

·       To get a wide knowledge of the main postcolonial theories. 

·       To analyse cinema through the lens of feminist and postcolonial literatures. 

·       To learn about Spain/Catalonia’s colonial action in North Africa. 

Course: Cultures, Texts and Intertext
Code: 569565
Lenght: 12/02/2025 - 14/05/2025
Credits: 6
More info:

What Do We Study

We will study the extent to which colonization (in particular that of North Africa) has defined cultural memory and collective identity. To do so, we will read theoretical texts on cultural memory and postcolonial studies, as well as examples from literary texts. We will also watch a selection of films that will allow us to analyse the cinematic representation of processes of (post/de)colonization, from the perspectives of those who colonize and those who suffer colonization. 

 


Which is the Line of Thought

We will work with the following theoretical concepts: memory (Erll), (post)colonial identities (Bhabham Fanon, Memmi, Spivak), diaspora(s) (Brubaker), gender and coloniality (Shohat)

 


Theoretical and Practical Approaches

Foundational texts in postcolonial studies:

Ashcroft, Bill; Griffiths, Gareth; Tiffin, Helen (Eds.) 1995: The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, Routledge.

Bhabha, Homi. Nation and Narration. Routledge, 1990.

Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. Routledge, 2004.

Bahbha, Homi; Aira, César (trad.) El lugar de la cultura. Manantial, 2002.

Fanon, Frantz. Peau noire masques blancs. Ed. Seuil, 1952.

Fanon, Frantz. Piel negra, máscaras blancas. Akal, 2009.

Fanon, Frantz. Les damnés de la terre. Maspero, 1961, 

Fanon, Frantz. Los Condenados de la Tierra. Txalaparta, 1999.

Memmi, Albert. Portrait du colonisé, précédé d'un Portrait du colonisateur. Corrêa, 1957.

 Memmi, Albert. Retrato del colonizado: precedido por Retrato del colonizador. Cuadernos para el diálogo, 1971.

Mezzadra, Sandro (coord. VVAA), Estudios Postcoloniales. Ensayos fundamentales. Traficantes de Sueños, 2008.

Said, Edward W., Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1978.

Traducció de Josep Mauri: Orientalisme. Identitat, negació i violència. Vic: Eumo Editorial, 1991.

Traducción de M. L. Fuentes: Orientalismo. Barcelona: Random House Mondadori, 2004 (3ª ed.).

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. ¿Pueden hablar los subalternos? Traducción y edición crítica de Manuel Asensi Pérez. MACBA, 2009 https://www.macba.cat/ca/aprendre-investigar/publicacions/pueden-hablar-subalternos

  

On identity, cinema and memory:

Erll, Astrid: Memory in Culture. Palgrave Macmillan 2011

Hedges, Ines. World Cinema and Cultural Memory, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2015

Robert Stam, Film Theory: an introduction, Blackwell, 2000   

 Teorías del cine: una introducción, Paidós, 2001                             

Shafik, Viola: History and cultural identity, The American University in Cairo Press, 1998, 2007

      

On postcolonial studies:

Ghandi, Leela 1998: Postcolonial theory. Australia: Allen&Unwim.

Shohat, Ella. “Notes on the "Post-Colonial"”. Social Text. No. 31/32, Third World and Post-Colonial Issues (1992), pp. 99-113. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/466220

Stam, Robert & Shohat, Ella. Race in Translation. Culture Wars around the Postcolonial Atlantic. New York University Press, 2012

Young, Robert. Postcolonialism. An Historical Introduction. Blackwell, 2001

 

On postcolonial studies and cinema:

Khatib, Lina 2006: Filming the Modern Middle East. Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World. London: IB Tauris.

Ponzanesi, Sandra & Waller, Marguerite (Eds.). Postcolonial Cinema Studies. Routledge, 2012.

Shohat, Ella. “Gender and Culture of Empire: Toward a Feminist Ethnography of the Cinema”. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 131_1-2 (Spring 1991), pp. 45-84

 

On diaspora:

Bauböck, Rainer & Faist, Thomas (Eds.). Diaspora and Transnationalism. Amsterdam University Press, 2010.

Brubaker, Rogers “The “diaspora” diaspora”, Ethnic & Racial Studies 28:1, 1-19 DOI: 10.1080/0141987042000289997 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141987042000289997 

 

 

 

 


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