Fall 2025 Anthropology UN3921 section 001

ANTICOLONIALISM

Call Number 12477
Day & Time
Location
W 10:10am-12:00pm
To be announced
Points 4
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor David Scott
Type SEMINAR
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description The age of colonialism, so it seems, is long over. Decolonization has resulted in the emergence of postcolonial polities and societies that are now, in many instances, two generations old. But is it clear that the problem of colonialism has disappeared? Almost everywhere in the postcolonial world the project of building independent polities, economies and societies have faltered, sometimes run aground. Indeed, one might say that the anti-colonial dream of emancipation has evaporated. Through a careful exploration of the conceptual argument and rhetorical style of five central anti-colonial texts—C.L.R. James’ The Black Jacobins, Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, Aimé Cesairé’s Discourse on Colonialism, Albert Memmi’s Colonizer and Colonized, and Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth—this course aims to inquire into the image of colonialism as a structure of dominant power, and the image of its anticipated aftermaths: What were the perceived ill-effects of colonial power? What did colonialism do to the colonized that required rectification? In what ways did the critique of colonial power (the identification of what was wrong with it) shape the longing for its anti-colonial overcoming?
Web Site Vergil
Department Anthropology
Enrollment 0 students (18 max) as of 3:06PM Thursday, April 3, 2025
Subject Anthropology
Number UN3921
Section 001
Division Interschool
Open To Barnard College, Columbia College, General Studies
Note Undergraduate students only. Instructors permission require
Section key 20253ANTH3921V001