Help my 17 year old students understand post-colonialism?

May 29, 2015 8:12 PM

My students are studying an Australian writer who engages with a revisionist version of the 'settling' of Australia. They need to write persuasive/expository/imaginative pieces about the ideas in the novel. I would like them to understand some basic post-colonialist theory. They are all around 16-18 years old, and of mixed ability. Suggestions for readings suitable for this age group?

I was thinking of Edward Said but I really need something more accessible, I think. This will be part of a number of extra readings they do, so it needs to be fairly independently digestible. I am also interested in any readings/websites/resources that might explain criticisms of anthropology as an academic field or developments within that field. I studied all this a long time ago and I can't remember what we read, and it was probably too difficult anyway, for them to do independently.

Thanks for your help in advance.

posted by jojobobo to Education (6 answers total)

I love Wikipedia
posted by jayder at 8:38 PM on May 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Is this really something a reading can do? Especially for learners at this level, just emerging from literalist understandings? I feel like a 45-minute tutorial from you (or someone you nominate who is confident with this material) with some video clips might fill the bill better. Sometimes complex concepts like this really come across better distilled in plain language by a knowledgeable educator.
posted by Miko at 8:40 PM on May 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm assuming if you teach in Australia you have heard of, or already use Brian Moon's Literary Terms?

I do revision seminars for Year 12 students on post colonialist approaches to texts. I could send you my material if you pm me. I found Elleke Boehmer's 'Colonial and Post Colonial Literature' really helpful. I made a summary of it, listing important terms and definitions etc - again, I could send that to you if you like.

I also use 'Being an Aboriginal' by Ken Colbung quite often.

Which novel is it?
posted by honey-barbara at 8:58 PM on May 29, 2015 [6 favorites]

As a statement from an original source that teenagers could understand, Ranajit Guha's "On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India" might work. Obviously, it's about India, but it's only 7 pages / 16 numbered paragraphs, and it makes reasonably generalizable points based on relatively few assumptions about the reader's background.

Perhaps, as a point of comparison and making this pretty global, you could also use this short video on the Pueblo Revolt and ask questions about its perspective, who made it, and why. It's suitable for much younger viewers, but high school students should be able to make pretty interesting comments on it.

I don't really know much about Australia from this point of view, but you might give them the opening chapter of The Road to Botany Bay and contrast that with this map of Sydney Harbor from today's Decolonial Atlas FPP.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 10:58 PM on May 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Oh, I eventually remembered a readable source for the anthropology element of your question: Diane Lewis (1973), "Anthropology and Colonialism."
posted by Monsieur Caution at 1:25 AM on May 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks. Wikipedia is way too jargon-laden in this case, and writing it myself is obviously an option but one that I was hoping to not have to do, hence the question. I found something offline that will work for the pc element and the abstract from the Lewis will suffice for the anthropology bit, so cheers for that, and also for the offer re: the summary, though they are not actually doing a p.c reading of the text-- the text is post-colonialist and they need to understand her argument and the body of work behind it. But the offer is much appreciated.
posted by jojobobo at 2:16 AM on May 30, 2015