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FAtt 2010

THE COLONIAL AND POSTCOTONIAL DISORDER OF THINGS

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Professor An4 Laurd Stoler (srolerd@newschool.edu) Thursday 4-5r50

Off. Hrs Wed 4'6.79 Fifth Ave. Rm 922

Can a history of modernity be written without writ int a history of empire? Can one understand thetechniques, technologies, and poli t ics of genocide and torture without a history of imperial governance?Can one account for th€ programs and poli . ies of the Iuropean radjcal r i8ht without understandrnB howracism and state viol€nce has been woven through the fabric of l iberal democracy and the distr ibutionof resources in IuroDe todav?

Crit ical studies of colonial ism have deep genealoBies, some ofwhich have been acknowledged, some ofwhich have not. Postcolonial studies is only one forlh of int€wention and one expression ofcri t ique.EmerBing on the Anglo American academic scene nearly thif ty years ago, i t has now just hit the Frenchand Germany academic bookshelves. How have its cri t icaltactics and nethods chanSed? While for

some postcolonialstudies represents a cri t ical mult i-discipl inary assault on how the production ofknowledge in mult iple discipl ines-from philosophy to geo8raphy, l i terature, anthropology andmedicine -. have shaped both the polrcies and perceptions that undenvrote Euro-American dominationof nearly three-quarters of the globe's population, for othe15 it has 5ince become a "safe" site ofscholarship and a surprisingly atemporal one. For some, a postcolonialcri t iqLre is about a reckoningwith a whitewashed and morally oLrtraBeous past. For otf i ;rs i t al lows a critrque of the present Fofother str l l , i ts project has been to do more than rewrite the history of colonial isms but to revamp whatcounts a5 viable questions, and to examine the violence wrought by what once were consideredcolonial ism's benign tools of production; concepts and catetories, epistemologies and narrative forms,archives and criteria of evidence. Some of that earl ier work focused on colonial situations in the past;

some on the postcolonial condit ion of formerly colonized populations. What often remarnsunderspecif ied rnd unaddressed i5 the nature of the relation5hip between the two. Terrns l ike "colonial

legacy' 'and "colonial vestige5" have often functioned as placeholders for grounded historicalandanalytic work.

That landscape has radical ly changed in geographi€ breadth, temporal scope and poli t ical rcale. In thisseminar, we wil l lool at how colonial i5m and qolonial history matter in the present, how colonial pasts

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bear on people's present options and tuture oqssihj l i l l€I, and for whom and in what way there is a vivid ry b-f

cpl!-0!af present today. We'l l examine th{ldrtabil i ty ' ' of colonial isms' conceptual categories-what -*_:f^-they have enabled, and in what ways they have t jeen revived. We'l l look at the conceptual categories of \_' -"-

colonial scholarship and what comfon zones it hls produced. We'l l look at the sexual poli t ics of empire,at the material and psyche debris that i t has left ln i ts wake and at debates about whether a history ofEurope and its contemporary racial aonfiguratiorls should or should not be understood as a part of thescarred ldndscape of emp re today

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Course requirement5; Presence, participation, and timely comptetion ot commentaries and writing

assrgnmen15.

There will be three principel writing ass;gnments;n the seminar:

1- Weekly commentades submitted the day betore clasr meets, on Wednesday by 4pm.

. This should be no more than a page long (there are manv ot us) and should be a reflection onthe readints that can take rranV fohsr questions Vou have about the readings, issueg you

would like to discuss more, <omments on the reading! in light of earlier discr.rssions. sho!ldyou bring in readings that we have not read as a class be sure to provide the rest of us with areference. Secause of the larg€ nuftber ih this semihar, onlv halfofthe class will do writtencolt|mentaries/queries each week.

2- Critical book review: This wifl be due on October 21". These reviews provide you with theopportuniW to examine in rhore detail how colonialism i5 treated ethnographically. What arethe sorts of questioDs that the book raises? What is the relationship between the colonial past

and present? What are considered methodological tools? What kinds of sources are used?What countr as evidence? This paper should be no Inore than l0 double-spaced pages. I a l istot Fossible books to review is provided at the end otthe syl labus. With prior approval, you

may use othersl3- Final esiay; Thises5ay is intended toallowyou topu6ue furtherah issue/que5t;on/ debate

raised in the seminar and if there is a panicular area ofthe world that interests you, to do thisessaywith respect tothat poli t ical, temporaland spatialterrain. Proposals forthis paperwil l

be due on November l8th. l t should include e staternent of your question and a prel iminary

bibliography. The final essay oI +/- 20 pages will be due on December l6th. late papers arenot acceptable.

Grades:

15 % (t imely) commentaries (due on the wednesday at 4pm before class)

15% seminar part icipation

2oyo crit ical book review

50% finalessay

WEEK 1 September 2 THE PROBLEMATICT [HOW] lS COLONIALISM A HISTORY

OF THE PRESENT?

WEEK2 September 9 No CtASs [REtlG lOUs HOLIDAY- TO BE MAoE UP Tues Nov 23]

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WEE( 3 September 16 lN THE EYE OF THE STORM: ANTHROPOLOGY AND COLONIAL RULE

COMPLICITIES ANO CRITIQUE

Balandier, GeorSe, "The Colonial Situation. A Theoretical Approach" i^ Socql Chonge ond the Coloniol

situotior, ed. l . Wallerstein, 1966 [originallV p!bl ished as " 'La Situation Colonialer Approche Theorique,"

h Cohiers tnternotionoux de socioloqie xl,1957, 44.79.

Feuchtwang, Stephan, "The Colonial Formation of Erit ish SocialAnthropologf" in Anthropology and the

Colonio l E ncounte t (I97 3), 7 7-7OO.

Lewis, Djane, "Anthropology and Colonial ism" Current Anthropoloqy 14, 5 (Dec 1973), 581-502.

Asad, Talal "From the History of Colonial Anthropologv to the Anthropology of Western Hegemony in

Coloniol Situations: Essoys on the Contextuolizotion of Ethnoqrophic Knor?/edqe, ed. George Stocking

{1991),314 24.

Rosaldo, Renato, " lmperial ist Nostalgia," Cullure ond Truth {19801,68-81.

Silverstein, Paul and lane E. Goodman, "Bourdieu in Al1etia, ' ' in Eourdieu in Algerio (2009)1'62.

WEEK 4 September 23 EMERGENT FORMS AND CONTENTIOUS MOMENTS

oF IPOSI] COTONTAT CRTTTQUE

Aime Cesaire Discourse on Colonial ism 119501 (2000), 31-78. Also there is an online alternative at:http://www.bandung2.co.uk/Books/Files/Poli t ics/DiscoLrrseT620on%20Colooial ism.pdf

satd, Edw a'd, Orie ntolism 11978), 7-2a.

El 'Haj, Nadia, "Edward Said and the Poli t ical Present, " American Ethnologisf 3214 (2005), 538-555.

Stoler, Ann and Frederick Cooper, "Between Metropole and Colony" in Tensions af Enpire, eds.

Frederick Cooper and Ann taura Sto)er /1997), 1-55.

Dirlrk, Arii "The Postcolonial Aura: Third world Criticism in the Age of Global Capitalism," Criticol lnqutry

20 ({994): 328-s5.u) eV r- ' "J'^ "bta

Also see:

>/ Said, Edwatd, "Otiental ism Reconsidered , Roce ond Classxxvti,2 (1985), 115.

C.t. R. Jafies, The Block locobins \19381

C.L. R. lames, Eeyond o Boundory .1963)

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WEEK 5 Septernber30 PERIPHERAT VlStONs {Subaltern Studies and after)

What was Subaltern stldieJ? Where did it come from?

what is Subalt€rn Studies todaV? Do you have to work on

South Asia to 'do it'?

Guha, Ranajit, "lntroductiot\" to A Suboltern Studes Reoder, 1986-1995 (1997), ix-xxii.

Sarkar, Sumit, "the Decline of the Suballern in Subaltern 5tudies," in chaturvedi, Vinayak, ed. tuappjngSubaltern Studies and the Postcolonial (2000) 300-23.

Chakrabarty, Dipesh, "Provincial izing Europe: Postcolonial i ty and the Crit ique of History, 'CulturalStudies 6,3 (19921.

Coronil , Fernando, "tat in American postcolonial studies and global decolonization" in OtordComponion to Postcoloniol Lttelory Studles, ed. Neil Lazarus (2OO41,221,24A.

Sommer, Doris, "Advertencla/Warning" in Proceed wtth Coution (1999) ix-x,r.

>> Ho, EnBsenB, "Empire throuBh DiasporicEyes A View from the Other Boat," CSJH 46, 2 ( 2OO4), 2100-46.L) a^"rl ; .+ /,Jl,r 1- \ ,r l - \-q .-<" ^ ,*1 !r 4. "t"t?- {--.\1

Alsosee: e 4-\ . -T "-- . ; .+, j * . . . * f_f ,Coronil , Fernando, "After Empire: Reflections on lmperial ism" in /mperiol Fornot@ns l2OOBl,24I 277.

Special lssue of Dlsposlt io, 52 (2005) "Latin American Subaltern Studies Revisited"

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IE""ILlydlrt Locol Histories/jlabalDesryns Coloniality, Suboltetn Knowledges, ond BarderThinkinss I2OOO).

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w€EK 6 October 7 lreschedule O(r 5?l COIONIAIISM AND THE GEN€ATOG|ES OF MODERNGOVERNANCE _-? O-L-q*\ )

Foucaull , Michel, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, Hrstory" 119711 in The Foucaalt Reoder,76 7tn

Taussig, Michael, "Culture of Terror-Space of Dealh," Compotutive Studies ln Society ond History \1984),467-97

Scott, oavid, "Colonial Governmental i ty," Socio/ feft 43 (Autumn 1995), 191-220.

Mbembe, Achille, "Of Cornmandemenf in O, the Postcolony l2OOl),24-65.

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-> 5i lverblatt, lrene, "Modern lnquisrt ions" in lmpetiol Formotions (20081, 275-309.

Also see:

tazreg, Marnia , The Twilight of Emphe: From Algiers to Abu Ghtoib (2008),1-17,34 6A.

Redfield, Peter, "Botany Bay to Devil 's lsLand" in Spoce in the Tropics,57 15,245-61

WCEK 7 OCtObET 14 COLONIAI DISORDERS: CORROSIV€ EFFECTS/ENTANGED SOUI.S

" l t IBrit ish societv] is a culture with iron deposits in i ts soul" (cuha 951

George Stocking wri les of a "moral 5chizophrenia" common to colonial

situations (1991), 32. What do you imagine it to be constituted of?

Orwell, GeorBe, "Shooting an t lephant" [1931'36] Bedford 5t Martin Onlina Resource, p. 1 6.httpi//bcs.bedfordsrlhart ins.com/everyth nssanargument4e/content/cat 020/Orwel Shootine.odf

Memmi, Albert, fhe Colonizer ond Colonized 1L957l,Vll-16.

Fanon, "Colonial War and Mental Disorders' in Wretched of the Eotth 119631, 181-23i.

Fabian, Joha nnes, Out o/ Our Minds l2O0Ol, 7-11,92 107.

Stoler, Ann [aura, " lrnperial Disposit ions of Disregad" in Along the Archivol Grain \2OO9),231-2']8.

Pandolfo, Stefania, 'The Knot of the Soul: Postcolonral Conundrums, Madne5s, and the lmagination"

Coloniol D8ordeB, eds. Mary Jo D.Good, Sandra Hyde, Sarah Pinto, Bryon Good (2009./, 329 258.

Also see:

Nandy, A5his, Ihe /raimate Enemy: Lass ond recover ol set undet coloniolism \1983).

Fischer, Lawrence, Colonial Modness: Mentol Heakh in the Eorbodion Sociol Otder 11985).

Mahone, Sloan and Me8an Vaugh, edt., Psychlotry ond Empire \2007).

Week 8 October 21 23 lN PURSUIT OF A CONCEPTUAL VOCA8ULARY

Hardt, Mi.haeland Ahtonio NeBeri , Empite (2000), 1'65,183-204.

Comaroff, Jean, "The End of History Again? Pursuing the Past in the Postcolony" in Pos tcolonlal Studlesond Beyand, eds- A^ia Loornba, Suvir Kaul, Matt i Bunzl, Antoinette Burton and Jed Esty {2005), 125,144

Stoler,AnnLaura,"OnDegreesofInperial SoIereignrj. PlDlic Cultne 18,112006),125-47.

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Dirlik. Arif, 'tnl're: Some Thoughts on Colonialism, Culture, and Class in the Ma!,ing ofGlobalCrisis and U'ar in Perpetuity," l ten.ntrcnr 5 (2 ) June:001 ,107 -:I7

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Week 9 October 28 COI,ONIAL LIBERALISM, HUMAN|SM, ANO THE pOLtTtCS OF ptTy

Metha, Uday, "LiberalStrategies of Exclusion" in Tensions of Empie l1gg7),59-86.

Wilder, Gary, ''Toward a New Colonial Rationality,' in fhe French lmpetiol Notion-Stote: Negrtude ondColoniol Humonism between the Two Wo d Wott l20OS), A3-75.

lgnatieff, Michael, "American Empire: The Burden," New Vork Times Mogozine, Jan S 2OA1,24.http://www.nytimes.com/2DO1/07/05/maBazinelthe.american,empire-rhe-burden.html

Ibut also see lgnatieff, Michael, "The H!rnanitarian as lmperial isr" in Fmphe Lite l2OO3l,4S-76.1

Gilroy. Paul, Race and dre RiAht Jo be Human. \1 Postcoloniel llelatlchalid (2004).19-57 .

Kauanui, Kehaulani, Colonial ism In tquali ty: Hawairan Sovereignty and the Question of U.S. Cjvj lRilhts," South Atlon c Quorterly lO7,4 lFall 20OB), 635 55O.

WEEK 10 November 4 THE GENDER, S€XUAL AND BODY POLITICS OF EMptRE

post'colorioles, forthcoming

o(:" ') .Uk vuemoe.nchil le. "The Aesthetics of vulgarity" in onThp postcolony l2oo1),102,141.

Alexander, Jrcq!i, "Not IUst (any) body can be a cit izenr the poli t i .s of law, sexuali ty and post.olontaj i tyin Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamai' in Cultures of Empie, ed. Catherine Hall (2000), 359-376.

Enloe, Cy^thia, The Curious Feminist: Searchtng lor Women in the New Age of Empire 12004) Itelection\I

Also see:

I aylor, )ean,The SociolWorld of Botovio \19831.

Stoler, Ar,n Laura, ,Qoae ond the Educot)on ol Desie: The Coloniol Order ol Ihinqs and Foucoult's HistoryoJ Sexuolity,1995.

Sl^ha, Mri^alini, Coloniol Mosculinly. the "Monly EhglishmeD'ond the'Eueminote Bengoli' in the totetgth century i1995!.

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Levine, Phil ippa, "Oriental ist Sociolotsy and the Creation ofColonialSexuali l ies,,, Femjnist Review65(Summer 20001. 5-21.

WEEK 1t November IIISECUR|TY AND THE CRAFTING OF COI.ONIAI- RUI-E

thonas, Maftin, Empites oj : Security SeNices and Coloniol Disotdet oftet l9l4 | 2008), 1-44.

Mccoy, Alfred, "Capillaries of Empire," in Policing Americo's Empjre: The united Stotes, the phitjppines-1idTiliGof the Survell/orce stofe (Madisoar U of wisconsin, 2OO9/, 15-56.

Weirman, Eyal , "Strategic points, Flexible Lines, Tense Surtaces, Poli t icalVolumes: Ariel Sharon and theGeometry of Occupation," The Philosophical Farum 35,2 (Summer 2004),221-244.

Bigo, Didier, "Globalized ln'Security: The Field and the Ban-opticon" in Ttanslotion, Eiopohtics, ColonialDflerence, eds. Naokr Sakai and John Solomon (2006), 109-55.

Kotef, Hagar and Merav Alhir, "(€n)Gendering Checkpoints: Check point Watch and the Repercussions oflntervention," 5i9r5 32, 4\2007 ), 91 3-996

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WEEK 12 November 18 COLONIAL DETRITUS/IMPERIAL DEBRIS

5toiet Ann faura, "The Rot Remains: On Ruins and Ruination" in //Dperio I Debris,lorthco.',in1.

Chari, Sharad, "Apartheid Remains" in /rnpellol ,ebr,r, forthcomtng.

Coll ins, John, "Ruins and Redemption in the Pelourinho' ' in lmpetiol Debris, forlhaomtng.

Rao, Vyjayanthi, "The Future in Ruins," in /mperiol tebris, forthcoming.

Azoulay, Ariella, "When a demoljshed home becomes a public squafe" in lmpe olDebtit, forthlominl.

Coopan, Vilashini, "The Ruins of Fmprre. The Natronal and Global Poli t tct of America's Return ro Rome,"in Postcoloniolism ond Beyord (2005), 80 100.

see alsoi

Hunt, Nancy, "An acoustic register, tenac ous images, and Congolese scenes of rape and repetnion" inmperial Debris Culturol Anthropology 23\21, 2OOB, 220-53.

Pappe, l lan, "The memoricide of the Nakba" rh e Ethnic Cleansing of Polestine \2006),225 34.

On environmental degradatioh and empire'

Gta\e, 6teen lmperiolismt Coloniol Expansion, trcpicol islond Edens ond the origins of environhentalism,1540-1860l't995).

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6rinde, Donald A. and Eruce [- Johansen, Ecoalue of Notive Ametitu I 7995).

Andercon, Darid, Eroding the Commong The Politics of Ecology in Boringo, Kenyo, 1890-1963 | 2OO2).

Showers, Kate. B, /mpp rial 6ullies: Soiletosion ond Conservotion in Lesotho ( 2OO5).

WEEK 13 lmake upl November 23 COUNTER-MOVEMENTS : AppROpRtATtONS AND REFUSAT-S

Lebovics, Herman, Sringing the Empire Bdck Hone \2OO4]/,13-51.

Comaroff, John.1. and Jean Comaroff, "Commodifying Descent, American Style,,' in Ethnicity, tnc. IZOO'),50-8s.

Simpson, Audra, "On Ethnographic Refusal: lndjgeneity, 'voice'and coJonjaj cjt jzenship, Juhctures 9 /Dec2007),67-80.

Beinart and Hughs, "Reassert ion of Indigenous Environmental Rights and Knowledge,,, in Ervironmentond Enlphe 1329-57].

Stoler, Ann laura, ''Memory WorI rn lava" in aornoi Knowledqe l2OO2)

See also:

S.otl, David, "The Socjal Construatjon of Postcojonia I 5t ud jes, " jn PosfralonjDl Studjet ond Beyond

Cooper, Frederick, "Postcolonial Studles and the Study of Hi5tory" in Postcoloniol Studies oDd Beyond

WEEK 14 December 2 RECASTING THE COLONIAL PAST: the case ol France

Balibar, Etienne, "Drolt de clti or Apartheid?' in We, The People of Europe? Reflections on TronsnotionalCiti ze nship lP tincelon, 2004), 31'50.

Stoler, Ann Laura "ColonialAphasia: On Race and Drsabled Histories in F?nce" public Culture 23,I1201O),

Mbembe, Achil le, "Must France be provrnc ai iz ed? Public Culture 23, 1(2010),

Bayart, lean Francois, "Postcolonral Studres: an lnvention of fradition?' publit Cultute 23, 't l2O1D),

wEEK 15 December 9 REIOCATING THE COl.ONlAt PRESENT

Gregory, I)erek, Ire Coloniol Present. | 29,248 62.

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Sham;r, Ronen, "Occupation as Disorientation: The lmpossibi l i ty of Botderc" in The Power af lnElusiveExclusion: Anatomy of lstueli Rule in the Occupted Polestinion Territories, ed. Adi Ophir, Michael Gtvoni,Sari Hanafi, (New York: Zone 8ooks, 2009), 587-96

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WE€K 16 December 15 FINAL ESSAYS OU€

Feldman, l lana,"HomeasaRefrain:RememberingandLiv insDisplacemenl incaza"HistoryondMenory lal2J 2006, 70-47 .

ETHNOGRAPHIC RENOERINGS OF COLONIAI. CRITIQUE

walf , E.ic, Sans ofthe Shoking Eorth \19591

Geetlz, Cliflotd, Agriculturol lnvolution: The Ptocesses of Ecological Chonge in lndonesio \1968)

Taussig, Michael, Ihe Deviland Commodlity Fetishism (1980)

Stoler, Ann Laura, Copltolism ond Confrontotion in Sumotro's Plontotion Belt (1985)

Iaussig, Michael, shomontsm, Colonioi)sm ond the Wld Mon. A study jn Terror ohd Heoling lI9Al)

Cohn, Bernard, Coloniolism ond lts Fan)s ol Knolr/edqe {essays from l980sl ( 1996).

Dirks, Nicholas, ed., Coloniolism and Culture 11992l'

Peorberton, John, O the Subject ol "Jova" 17991).

Trouil lot, Michel-Rolph, Silencing the Post \1995)

Sto er, Ann Laura, Race ond the Educotian oJ Desre 11995).

Swedenberg, Ted, Memoties oJ Revait '1995).

Mamdani, Mahmood, Citizen and Subject Cantpmporory AIrrco and the Legocy of Late CalontolEm(r995).

Price, Richard, Convlct ond Colonel. A Srcry al Caiantolism and Retistonce in the Cotibbeon 11997)

Redfleld, Peter, Spo.e ln the Trcpics l20\)l

ta blan, lohannes, Out of Out Minds: Reosan ond Modness in the Explorotion ol Centrol AJrico (20OA)

Co1e, Jenntfet, Foryet Coloniolism: Socriftce ond the Art of Memory in Modagascor(2001)

s10

I D .ks, Nicholas, Costes ol Mind: Coloniolism and the Mokinq of Moden tndio l2OO7]

Chatterjee, Dipesh, Hobitotions ol Modernity: Essoys in the Woke of Subaltern Studies l2OO2)

Silverblatt, lrene, Modern I nquis itions l2OO4l

Dubois,.Iaurent ,4 Colory ol Citizens .2004)

scott, David, Conscfrpfs of Modernity: The Trogedy af Coloniol Enlightenment l2OO4l

Stoler, Ann Laura, ed. Hounted by Empire: Geogrophies of lntimacy in North Americon Histoty lZOO6l

Ho, Engseng, Ihe.Groves of Toim: Geneology and Mobility octoss the lndion Oceon (2006).

Vine, David, lslond of Shome: The Sectet History of the U.S. Militory Bose on Diega Gorcio \2009)

Rushdie, Salman Midnlght's Ch ildren

Marguerite Duras, Seowol/

Pramoedya Ananta Toet,This Eorth of Monkind[1975], Child of All Notions, House of Gloss [1988]

The Mute's Soliloquy [1999],

Fi lms:

"La Haine"

"Cache"

"Chocolat"

"Batt le of Algiers"