Timetable
Monday, 11.00-15.00 h.
Vrieshof 4, room 012
Method of Instruction
Seminar
Description
This course concentrates on key concepts in recent theories of interculturality. The last few decades have witnessed a proliferation of debates on concepts such as identity, difference and alterity, hybridity, syncretism, mimicry, mestizaje, transculturación, créolisation, fusion, globalization, glocalization, mondialisation, etcetera. This course aims to show that such concepts are far from universal. In different regions, different concepts have been developed to describe local or worldwide phenomena, testifying to the fact that global phenomena take a different shape depending on their particular cultural context. This course offers a comparative study of the many key concepts that have been developed to address the world-s intercultural dynamics. On the one hand, the course traces the history of such concepts in their specific cultural contexts. On the other hand, the course considers the transnational and intercultural trajectories of key concepts and theories that were developed in one (inter)cultural space, and are now gratefully used in another. In this way, the course offers an transnational account of the growth of the field of intercultural and postcolonial studies, with its particular discourses and concepts, both inside and outside the context of the development of Cultural Studies. In a series of close readings, students will assess the productivity of different (translated) theories.The course addresses the numerous debates on the ways in which the dynamics of multiculturalisation and creolisation are theorised in Latin-American, Caribbean, European and Asian debates. What is the genealogy of these debates? What happens when one borrows insights from one body of theory to apply it to another historical or cultural context? In addition to these questions, we will pay specific attention to the role that gender and sexuality play in the theorizing of interculturality.
Required reading
Reader
Examination
Active participation, 4 short essays, 1 paper
Information
Dr. E. Minnaard
Dr. Nanne Timmer
Or: Secretary’s office of Pallas, Institute for Art Historical and Literary Studies, P.N. van Eyckhof 3, room 104a. Tel. +31 (0)71 527 2166. E-mail: pallas@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Students are requested to register at the Pallas office.