Course info

This course offers an in-depth exploration of postcolonial theory through the lens of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, equipping students with the conceptual tools to analyze identity, power, and resistance in literary texts. Students will engage with foundational terms such as otherness, hybridity, mimicry, and subalternity, while also examining the contributions of key theorists like Said, Spivak, Bhabha, and Fanon. Through close reading and critical interpretation, the course investigates how colonial discourse shapes subjectivity and how postcolonial literature—especially Douglass’s narrative—employs language and literacy as acts of defiance and reclamation. By the end, students will be able to apply theoretical frameworks to distinguish between colonial and postcolonial representations and to articulate how marginalized voices assert agency within and against dominant structures.