AP/RLST 4810 6.00

Religion in Post-Colonial Literature

This course examines the role and status of the religious in the production and reception of contemporary post-colonial literatures in English. Interdisciplinary in approach, the course begins with an assessment of Christianity’s historical function as the handmaiden of British colonial and imperial expansion. We then analyze ways in which post-colonial novelists of European and indigenous cultures in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Caribbean and the Africas embody, transform and interrogate this history. Might the ritual, ethical and theological inheritance of Christianity be adapted to changing post-colonial conditions, or should it be resisted altogether as the lingering ideology of colonial times? Finally, such considerations involve us in the analysis of post-colonial fiction which explores the history of relations among adherents of religious traditions other than Christianity and the scions of the British colonial and imperial project. Although required readings focus on the novel, students are free to work on poetry and drama in their research essays.

RELIGIOUS TRADITION(S) COVERED: Multiple

Course Category: Religion, Literature, and the Arts