Colonialism, 1492–Present

Description

This course will be a thematic exploration of colonialism as an historical, political, cultural, and psychological experience. We will highlight struggles between Europeans and colonized peoples and think historically about global structures of inequality, that is to say, the exploitation of human difference within capitalism and colonialism.

Topics may include: Columbus and ‘the cannibals’; the Spanish conquest of Mexico; the Atlantic slave trade; racial capitalism and modernity; the Haitian Revolution; British colonialism in India and Egypt; the Belgian Congo; the relation between Self and Other in the colonial encounter; the ideology of race and racism; anticolonial nationalism and decolonization, with special attention to the Algerian War of decolonization; and U.S. Imperialism in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The emphasis will be on a discursive understanding of colonialism, rather than comprehensive chronological and geographical coverage. We will engage a diverse array of primary and secondary sources, novels, art, and films in our exploration.