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Probing the Periphery: Postcolonial Studies, Feminism and Western Africa in Belk Library |
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| Preliminaries
Introduction Scope General Advice SEARCHING ELECTRONIC RESOURCES PRINT AND PHYSICAL
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Postcolonialism is a word you are more likely to hear in academics than anywhere else. Traditionally, postcolonialism primarily concerns itself with the literature, written in English, of former British or other colonies that have recently become independent. However, in true postmodern fashion, it is an interdisciplinary pursuit that draws from many areas including literary criticism, economics, history, political science, art, and linguistics. Also, the definition of postcolonialism has been extended to talk about the literature all countries affected by imperialism--Singapore, Canada, Australia. As it is a theory that deals closely with hybridity, it is hybrid itself--constantly changing to reflect the literature and politics on which it focuses. Feminist and postcolonial theories work well together because they are both focused around issues such as oppression, control, subversion, race, authority and class. More and more, scholars are beginning to explore neo-colonialism and the effects it creates through economic and media imperialism.
This pathfinder's purpose is to help students, researchers, and others who are interested in learning more about postcolonialism and feminism as they relate to Western Africa, particularly Nigeria. It is not completely comprehensive for what is available at or through Appalachian State University's Belk Library. Instead it focuses on major and influential works and offers advice and other help to continue searching for material related to postcolonialism, feminism and West Africa. Most postcolonial literature and theory deals with the cotemporary period, roughly 1945 to the present. This pathfinder is designed for people doing academic research. Every resource listed in this pathfinder is free or available through Belk Library.
General Advice for Researchers top Some significant Nigerian authors include Chinua Achebe, Flora Nwapa, Wole Soyinka, Buchi Emecheta, Amos Tutola and Ben Okri. Some significant themes in postcolonial and feminist theory include "the Other," rape, hybridity, nationalism, border crossing, authenticity, oral expression, globalization and marginality. Some of the most well-known postcolonial theorists include Edward Said, Arif Dirlik, Salman Rushdie, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin, and Frantz Fanon. Some theorists whose works focus on postcolonialism and feminism together are Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Anne McClintock, Sara Suleri, and Ella Shohat. Examining the works of any one of the names listed above would not be a bad starting point for research on postcolonialism. Some specific print titles that give good general information about postcolonial theory and feminism are: General Postcolonial and Feminist Theory Resources Postcolonialism Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. The empire writes back : theory and practice in post-colonial literatures. London ; New York : Routledge, 1989. ASU MAIN STACKS PR9080 .A85 1989
Hawley, John C. Encyclopedia of postcolonial studies. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2001. ASU REFERENCE PN849.U43 E53 2001 King, Bruce, ed. New national and post-colonial literatures : an introduction. New York : Clarendon Press, 1996. ASU MAIN STACKS PR9080 .N49 1996 McLeod, John. Beginning postcolonialism. Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed in the USA by St. Martin's Press, 2000. ASU MAIN STACKS PR9080 .M35 2000 You may also want the Contemporary Authors series for quick general
information on postcolonial authors: Feminism Bulbeck, Chilla. Re-orienting western feminisms : women's diversity in a postcolonial world. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998. ASU MAIN STACKS HQ1154 .B848 1998 Harlan, Judith. Feminism : a reference handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, 1998. ASU REFERENCE HQ1410 .H365 1998 Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. Feminism without borders : decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity. Durham : Duke University Press, 2003. ASU MAIN STACKS HQ1870.9 .M64 2003 Tong, Rosemarie Putnam. Feminist thought : a more comprehensive introduction. Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1998. ASU MAIN STACKS HQ1206 .T65 1998
Library of Congress Numbers--Circulating Works top
GR350--African oral literature HQ1190--feminist theory JV1-9840 Political Science: Colonies and Colonization, Emigration and Immigration, International Migration JV1-5399 Colonies and Colonization PL8000-8844 African languages and literature PL8000-8009 Languages PL8009.5-8014 Literature PL8010--African literature and criticism PL8015-8021 Languages. By region or country PL8024-8027 Special families of languages PL8035-8844 Special languages (alphabetically) PN80-99 Literary Criticism PR8309-9680 English literature: Provincial, local, etc. PR9080--commonwealth and postcolonial theory PR9387--Nigerian literature
Here are a few Dewey Decimal numbers you might want to browse when looking for resources: 305.42 Feminism 325 International migration and colonization 398 Folklore 809 Literary Criticism (you will find works of criticism about a particular author shelved after that author's works because a capital Z is placed at the end of the first cutter line) 896 African Literature
Developing countries -- Literatures -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc Decolonization in literature ; Imperialism in literature ; Colonies in literature ; Minority women in literature ; Culture conflict in literature Postcolonialism ; Orientalism ; Imperialism Postcolonialism -- Africa Decolonization African literature Feminist criticism Feminism and literature Feminism Africa African literature -- Women authors Women and literature -- Great Britain -- Colonies Women and literature -- Africa -- History -- 20th century
postcolonialism postcolonial AND theory Commonwealth Literature English History And Criticism feminism AND postcolonialism gender AND postcolonialism feminism AND postcolonialism AND Africa Nigerian AND literature Nigeria AND literary AND theory Nigerian AND literature AND women
(links in this section will only work if you are connected to ASU network--on campus or by proxy) Academic Search FullTEXT Elite Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
AllLearn, Home > Literature > Literary Criticism and Theory > Postcolonialism--this is the best one, great resource Google, Arts > Literature > Periods and Movements Google, Arts > Literature > World Literature > African > Nigerian Yahoo, Arts > Humanities > Critical Theory > Postcolonialism AltaVista, Arts > Literature > Periods and Movements
Colonial/Post-Colonial Web Sites, a bibliography of web resources relating to postcolonial studies Contemporary Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English created by George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University--absolutely the best resource for postcolonial studies on the Web. Nigeria Information Page with links from the African Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania Postcolonial Studies Website at Emory University, developed by Deepika Bahri Presidential Lectures- Gayatri Spivak hosted by Stanford University Voice of the Shuttle: Other Literatures in English
Critical Inquiry, available electronically through Belk Library, This journal is available full-text from 09/01/1990 to present through Academic Search Elite, SEARCH FOR THIS JOURNAL IN Academic Search Elite Imperium is an online journal dedicated to the study of the postcolonial experience within a diverse range of contexts related to media and postcolonial studies. Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies Manushi- A Journal about Women and Society Wasafiri, a British literary magazine primarily concerned with new and postcolonial writers
Drewal, Margaret Thompson. Yoruba ritual [video recording] : a companion video. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1992. Ecaré, Désiré. Visages de femmes [video recording] = faces of women. New York : New Yorker Video, 1987. A film exploring the links between feminism, economics and tradition in modern-day Africa. Greenfield , Fenella, Dir. Ben Okri [video recording]. ICA Video, in conjunction with Trilion. Northbrook, IL : ICA Video, 1989. Jell-Bahlsen, Sabine. Mammy Water [video recording] : in search of the water spirits in Nigeria. Berkeley, CA : University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, 1989. Mammy Water is a water deity worshipped in Nigeria. The film features Mammy Water rituals and interviews with Igbo and Ijaw devotees and their leaders. Marengo, Alex, Dir. Edward Said [video recording]. Series producer, Patricia Llewellyn. Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1998
This is not a comprehensive list of titles available in Belk Library. This is a bibliography of influential works or works that address postcolonialism and feminism together that can serve as a beginning point or supplement to your research. This list does not include any Nigerian literature. For more information on Nigerian literature and authors, see the Authors section of Experts and Scholars. Influential Works Achebe, Chinua. Hopes and impediments : selected essays. New York : Anchor Books ; Doubleday, 1990. UNCA GENERAL PR9387.9.A3 H6 1990 Appiah, Anthony. In my father's house : Africa in the philosophy of culture. New York : Oxford University Press, 1992. ASU MAIN STACKS DT352.4 .A66 1992 Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. The empire writes back: theory and practice in post-colonial literatures. London: Routledge, 1989. ASU MAIN STACKS PR9080 .A85 1989 Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, ed. The post-colonial studies reader. London ; New York : Routledge, 1995. ASU MAIN STACKS PR9080 .P57 1995 Bhabha, Homi K. The location of culture. London ; New York : Routledge, 1994. ASU MAIN STACKS PN761 .H43 1994 Fanon, Frantz. Black skin, white masks. Trans. by Charles Lam Markmann. New York, Grove Press, 1967. ASU MAIN STACKS GN645 .F313 Fanon, Frantz. The wretched of the earth. Trans. from the French by Constance Farrington. New York : Grove Press, 1963. ASU MAIN STACKS DT33 .F313 Mignolo, Walter. Local histories/global designs : coloniality, subaltern knowledges, and border thinking. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2000. ASU MAIN STACKS JV51 .M54 2000 Ngugi wa Thiongo. Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language. London: James Currey, 1989. ASU MAIN STACKS PL8010 .N48 1986 Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary homelands : essays and criticism, 1981-1991. London : Granta Books ; New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : In association with Viking, 1991. UNCA 2-HOUR RESERVES PR6068.U757 I4 1991 Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York : Vintage Books, 1994. ASU MAIN STACKS DS12 .S24 1994 Soyinka, Wole. Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1976. ASU MAIN STACKS PL8010 .S64 Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. A critique of postcolonial reason : toward a history of the vanishing present. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1999. ASU MAIN STACKS JV51 .S58 1999 Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. The Spivak reader : selected works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak / edited by Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean. New York : Routledge, 1996. ASU MAIN STACKS HM101 .S7733 1996
Feminism, Gender, and Postcolonial Theory Daniels, Patsy J. The voice of the oppressed in the language of the oppressor : a discussion of selected postcolonial literature from Ireland, Africa, and America. New York : Routledge, 2001. ASU MAIN STACKS PS153.M56 D36 2001 Darby, Phillip, ed. At the edge of international relations : postcolonialism, gender, and dependency. London; New York : Pinter, 1997. ASU MAIN STACKS D887 .A88 1997 Donaldson, Laura E. Decolonizing feminisms : race, gender & empire building. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1992. ASU MAIN STACKS PS152 .D58 1992 Donaldson, Laura E. and Kwok Pui-Lan, ed. Postcolonialism, feminism, and religious discourse. New York : Routledge, 2002. ASU MAIN STACKS BL458 .P67 2002 Loomba, Ania. Colonialism-postcolonialism. London ; New York : Routledge, 1998. ASU MAIN STACKS JV51 .L66 1998 Mohanram, Radhika. Black body : women, colonialism, and space. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1999. ASU MAIN STACKS HM636 .M64 1999 Mohanty, Candra Talpade. "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses." Boundary 2 12. (1984): 333-340. ASU PERIODICALS 12 Fall 1983-Win 1984 Richards, Constance S. On the winds and waves of imagination : transnational feminism and literature. New York : Garland Publishing, 2000. ASU MAIN STACKS PR478.F45 R53 2000 Schwarz , Henry and Sangeeta Ray, ed. A companion to postcolonial studies. Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers, 2000. WCU GENERAL JV51 .C75 2000 Sharpe, Jenny. Allegories of empire : the figure of woman in the colonial text. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1993. ASU MAIN STACKS PR830.W6 S5 1993 Spivak, Gayatri. "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism."
Critical Inquiry 12(1). (1985): 243-59.
SEARCH FOR THIS JOURNAL IN Academic Search Elite Trinh, T. Minh-Ha. Woman, native, other : writing postcoloniality and feminism. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1989. ASU MAIN STACKS PN471 .T75 1989
Aguolu, Christian Chukwunedu. Nigeria: a comprehensive bibliography in the humanities and social sciences. Boston, G. K. Hall, 1973. ASU REFERENCE Z3597 .A64 Azikiwe, Uche. Women in Nigeria : an annotated bibliography. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1996. UNCA REFERENCE HQ1815.5.B13 A84 1996 Nordquist, Joan. Postcolonial theory : a bibliography. Santa Cruz, CA : Reference and Research Services, 1998. ASU MAIN STACKS JV51 .N76 1998 Nordquist, Joan. Postcolonial theory (II) Literature and the arts : a bibliography. Santa Cruz, CA : Reference and Research Services, 1999. ASU MAIN STACKS JV51 .N77 1999 Parekh, Pushpa Naidu and Siga Fatima Jagne, ed. Postcolonial African writers : a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook. Westport, Conn : Greenwood Press, 1998. ASU MAIN STACKS PL8010 .P585 1998 Switala, Kristin. Feminist Theory Website: Feminism in Nigeria hosted by the Center for Digital Discourse and Culture at Virginia Tech University
(links in this section will only work if you are connected to ASU network--on campus or by proxy) Chrisman, Laura and Benita Parry, ed. Postcolonial theory and criticism [computer file]. Woodbridge : D. S. Brewer, 2000. Check this book out from netLibrary Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Captive bodies [computer file] : postcolonial subjectivity in cinema. Albany : State University of New York Press, 1999. Check this book out from netLibrary Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial theory [computer file] : a critical introduction. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 1998. Check this book out from netLibrary Hendricks, Christina and Kelly Oliver, ed. Language and liberation [computer file] : feminism, philosophy, and language. Albany : State University of New York Press, 1999. Check this book out from netLibrary John, Mary E., Discrepant dislocations [computer file] : feminism, theory, and postcolonial histories. Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, 1996. Check this book out from netLibrary Olson, Gary A. and Lynn Worsham. Race, rhetoric, and the postcolonial [computer file]. Albany : State University of New York Press, 1999. Check this book out from netLibrary
Organizations, Associations top Association of African Women Scholars The Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Established in 1996, the Institute of Postcolonial Studies is the first educational institution in the world to be specifically directed to the study of postcolonialism. Postcolonial Research Group at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne
At Appalachian State University, Dr. James M. Ivory is an excellent resource for information on postcolonial studies, as is Dr. Thomas M. McLaughlin Authors of Nigerian Literature Major Postcolonial and/or Feminist theorists, scholars, and critics
African literature is one of the major regional literatures that is examined in postcolonial studies. If you are interested in further pursuit of postcolonial theory, another major area that is often written about is India. From there, you can move on to Ireland, Canada, the Caribbean, the Pacific Rim--whatever most interests you. Many of the influential resources listed in this pathfinder are going to be general enough to apply to many different geographical areas or are going to specifically address many different areas. Feminism is not the only critical school that often works in hand with postcolonial theory. If you feel inspired to explore some of these, postmodernism, Marxism, cultural Studies, various literary criticism schools of thought (poststructuralists, deconstructionists, etc), and other modalities of thought and scholarly research also are well-paired with postcolonial studies. Postcolonial theory is exciting because it is a fluid and ever-changing area of study. You may find many contradictions or become frustrated by a lack of definitiveness or an unwillingness to claim absolute authority. Keep in mind that postcolonial theory is closely allied with ideas of subversion and hybridity and by definition denies any absolutes. Remember to be critical when using online resources and when in doubt, turn to sources that have been evaluated by an information science specialist. Explore the services that your library offers and take advantage of them. Your reference librarian is there to help. Belk Library offers in-depth research assistance through one-on-one "Rap Sessions" and Thesis Research Assistance.
--William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming
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What
rough beast, its hour come round at last,