In Different Voices: Postcolonial Writing by Women

In her important essay “Under Western Eyes,” Chandra Talpade Mohanty suggests that the experiences of women from the so-called Third World have to be understood in their own terms, rather than through the lens of Western feminism. Focusing on writings by Assia Djebar, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Merle Hodge, Dionne Brand, Mahasweta Devi, Arundhati Roy, among others, we will examine how women from South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean use fiction, poetry, and memoir to address a variety of concerns: familial relationships, caste, class, race, religious identity, history, education, work, national liberation, modernization, development, migration, diaspora, and globalization. 3 hrs. lect./disc.