Postcolonial Feminism

Join List Serve for times and locations

In this course we will explore some of the key thinkers in Postcolonial Feminist theory. We will examine the writings, poems and films of various women placed under this conceptual umbrella. These women will aid our investigations into the ways that sexism, racism and classism shape the experience of “third-world women.” We will also examine the ways that sexism, racism, and classism shape whether or not, and if so to what extent we hear their voices.

Part Two Will Begin The Last Week of June

WEEK 8, June 26:
Gloria Anzaldua
 – Speaking in Tongues (1980), Borderlands/La Frontera (1987), Haciendo Caras, Una Entrada (1990)

WEEK 9, July 3:
Audre Lorde 
The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House (1979), The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism (1981), Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger (1983)

WEEK 10, July 10:
Mitsuye Yamada –  Camp Notes (1976), Asian Pacific American Women and Feminism (1981), Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster (1979)
María Isabel Seguro Gómez – The Japanese American Experience Through Literature (2006)

WEEK 11, July 17:
Lisa Kahaleole HallHawaiian at Heart (2005)
Manu Aluli Meyer – Our Own Liberation: Reflection on Hawaiian Epistemology (2001)
Julie Kaomea – Dilemmas of an Indigenous Academic: A Native Hawaiian Story (2oo1)

WEEK 12, July 24:
Chandra Mohanty –
Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses (1988)
Lorna Dee Cervantes – Emplumada (1981)

WEEK 13, July 31:
Gayatri Spivak
 – Can the Subaltern Speak? (1988)

WEEK 14, August 25:
Maria Lugones – Peregrinajes/Pilgrimages (2003), Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System (2007)

WEEK 15, September 1:
Mila Aguilar – A Comrade is as Precious as a Rice Seedling (1984)
Trinh Minh-Ha – Commitment from the Mirror-Writing Box (1989), Not You/Like You (1988), Reassemblage (1982)

WEEK 16, Setember 8:
Uma Narayan – Dislocating Cultures (1997)
Shirin Neshat – Women Without Men (2009)

WEEK 17, September 15:
Chyrstos – Not Vanishing (1988)

This is a reading intensive course and the primary objective is to read these texts carefully and then discuss them in a constructive and elucidating manner. Given that nearly each week there are multiple readings, participants should feel encouraged to read what they can and then come to the group and discuss. Reading all the material is not a prerequisite for attendance. Also, given the length of the course, feel free to drop in when the material strikes your interest.