Module Identifier IPM1320  
Module Title POSTCOLONIAL POL 1: POWER, COLONIALISM, IDENTITY (RT)  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Rita Abrahamsen  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Mutually Exclusive IPM1330 , IPM1720 , IPM1730  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   22 Hours (1 x 2 hour seminars per week)  
Assessment Semester Assessment   1 x 3,000 word essay   70%  
  Semester Assessment   1 x 1,500 word essay   30%  
  Supplementary Exam   Students may, subject to Faculty approval, have the opportunity to resit this module, normally during the supplementary examination period. For further clarification please contact the Teaching Programme Administrator in the Department of International Politics.    

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module students will be able to:

- discuss the notion of the postcolonial or postcoloniality
- analyse power relations and discursive practices in a postcolonial context
- discuss questions of power, colonialism or identity in a postcolonial setting

Brief description

This module provides the first part of an introduction to postcolonial politics

Aims

The module introduces students to Foucauldian concepts of power and discourse and examines the use of these concepts in the study of colonialism and identity in a postcolonial context.

Content

The first seminar examines the meanings of the term postcolonialism. The next three seminars introduce Foucauldian concepts of power and discourse. These are followed then by three seminars on colonialism and three on identity. In each case we examine traditional approaches and challenges to those from a discursive or Foucauldian framework. Each block of three seminars includes a specific case study.

Transferable skills

The module will require and develop transferable skills such as teamwork (through the use of student-led seminars), individual writing and analytic skills and time management (thorough the preparation of essays); critical reading and analysis (through the preparation for weekly seminars); debating and facilitating skills and the ability to express themselves on complex topics in an understandable way (through the seminar discussions).

10 ECTS credits

Reading Lists

Books
Loomba, A. Colonialsim/Postcolonialism. Routledge
(1994) Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Harvester Wheatsheaf
Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings 1972-1977 (ed by C Gordon). Harvester Press