Course Description:
In this course we will explore the interrelations among love, heteropatriarchy, and colonialism, and Indigeneity, queerness, feminism, and decolonial love. We will consider ways “love”–familial, romantic, patriotic—serves in different sites of settler colonialism to perpetuate colonial structures. As well, we will consider how these same forms of love not only can, in decolonial and anti-colonial struggles, remain imbricated in and perpetuate colonialism and other forms of oppression, but also how they are central to imagining and realizing alternative ways of being in the world. As we consider whether all colonial love is violent, we’ll also grapple with what the term “decolonial love” means. We will look to different conceptualizations of it that range from Junot Díaz’s often-quoted formulation that popularized the term and that works within heterosexual romantic relationships, to Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s revision of Díaz’s formulation, which queers and expands it.
To anchor our investigations, we will consider contemporary texts (popular music, novels, short stories, memoir, letters, poetry, films, videos, theory), that centrally engage the topics of love and colonialism from different sites and positionalities (Turtle Islander, Black, Philippine, Kanaka Maoli, Latinx, Palestinian, queer, white settler, etc.). Questions we will take up include the following: How do various kinds of love structure or sustain colonialism? Is colonial love better understood simply as colonial violence? How and under what conditions can love serve to defy, exceed, or provide alternatives to colonial structures and institutions? What are the interrelations between queer and decolonial love? between Indigeneity and decolonial love? What problems and possibilities come with using “decolonial” and “Indigenous” interchangeably and as a future horizon to strive for? Does exploring decolonial love and its possibilities require rethinking valorizations of monogamous heterosexual relationships? Are phrases such as “be mine” part of a colonial logic? Does decolonial love necessitate challenging understandings of relations among humans and other-than-human beings, land, sky, and elements? How and why might doing so matter to creating decolonial futures? Are some genres and forms better suited to perpetuating colonial and/or decolonial love than others, and why? How does land figure into decolonial love? Are formulations of decolonial love site specific?
Assignments: Grades will be determined by the following components: seminar paper of 15-20 pages (~50%) + proposal + outline + presentation (~5-10%); 5-6 page love letter; (~15%); class presentation + handout (~10%); weekly letters to the class (~15%); responses to events, presentation of texts, written takeaways.
Books (tentative listing): Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of My Brief Body; Lucha Corpi, Black Widow’s Wardrobe; Junot Díaz, This Is How You Lose Her; Laurel Flores Fantauzzo, My Heart Underwater; No‘u Revilla, Ask the Brindled; Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Rehearsals for Living; Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony; Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Islands of Decolonial Love; Haunani-Kay Trask, Light in the Crevice Never Seen
Films (tentative listing): Hany Abu-Assad, dir., Omar; Danis Goulet, Night Raiders; Christopher Kahunahana, dir., Waikīkī ; Farah Nabulsi, dir., The Present; Elias Sulieman, Divine Intervention; Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, dir., The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
Short videos by Hala Alyan, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, Ciara Lacy, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Tanaya Winder, Rafeef Ziadah
List of possible essays and short texts by authors including: Norma Alarcón,
Devin G. Atallah, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Lia Maria Barcinas and Aiko Yamashiro, Mahmoud Darwish, Aya Deleon, Junot Diaz, Qwo-Li Driskill and Daniel Heath Justice, Sarah Hunt and Cindy Holmes, Sarah Ihmoud, Ricardo Frasso Jaramillo, J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada, Audre Lorde, Cherríe Moraga, Paula Moya, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, Laura Perez, No‘u Revilla, Steven Salaita, Shreerekha, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Neferti Tadiar, Kim TallBear, Teresia Teaiwa, Haunani-Kay Trask, Elissa Washuta, and Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang.
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Appreciation of how literary and cultural texts participate in colonial and decolonial structures.
- Ability to situate your work within larger critical and theoretical conversations.
- Strengthened skills in close readings of literary and cultural texts.
- Strengthened skills in working across different academic disciplines.
- Advanced skills in analyzing different literary genres in relation to cultural and political contexts.
- Enhanced ability to craft a research paper, including developing a research question, formulating a compelling thesis, and choosing and analyzing sources to develop and strengthen your arguments.
- Enhanced ability to give oral presentations to students that clearly convey a body of information and analysis.
- Experimentation with writing (about) theory, criticism, and cultural texts in creative ways, including through personal narrative.
- Foundational knowledge about literature that takes up themes of the colonial violence (personal and collective, present-day and generational), and of decolonial love.
- Readings in contemporary settler colonial, Indigenous, queer, feminist and abolitionist theory.