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Ideas and Ideology Love, Hate and Sexual Desire Under Colonialism Junior Year Honors Seminar: Cultural Encounters, 1999-2000

310-402-03

Love, Hate, and Sexual Desire Under Colonialism

1. Objectives:

Because this is still a new course, I am not certain of my objective or purpose. If I were very sure of my purpose I would probably have no need to teach the course. I want to explore some ideas about which I have some intuitions. If possible, I hope to elaborate these into arguments. The general focus is sexual relations between colonizers and "natives" within which I want to pose the following question: Given the predominance of racism, what explains the prevalence of sexual desires and sexual practices between colonizers and colonized? Among other possibilities, we will consider that perhaps fear and hate produce, or stem from, their opposites, namely, desire and love. This course is motivated by two tentative hypotheses: (1) that the exploration, discovery, and knowledge of others, while driven by power, greed, and missionary zeal, may be concerned more deeply to overcome and fill a kind of (partial) cultural emptiness; (2) this cultural "lack" is filled, in part, by conceptualizing and consummating sexual relations with cultural others. I hope we will examine the role of the colonizer and colonized within this strained dynamic. Our purpose will be to consider whether this dynamic is real, and, if it is, where and how it might apply in our contemporary life.

2. Readings:

We will read between 100-200 pages a week. We will select these readings from the following materials:

Jessica Benjamin, Bonds of Love, Pantheon, 1988.
Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject, Princeton, 1997.
Ronald Hyam, Empire and Sexuality, Manchester, 1990.
Tayyib Saleh, Season of Migration to the North, Heinmann, 1969.
Robert J. C. Young, Colonial Desire, Routledge, 1995.
Joel Williamson, New People, LSU Press, 1995
selected hand outs
Instructor and students will jointly determine the pace and selection of the readings as the course proceeds.

3. Evaluation

I will determine your grade by evaluating the following components.

50% will come from journals in which you respond to the readings. The journals are due five times during the semester: Jan. 26, Feb. 9, Feb. 23, March 22, April 12. (See below for suggestions on how to write the journal.)

50% of your grade will be derived from one final comprehensive take-home essay. I would like this to be between 15-20 pages in length. I would also like this to be something in which you attempt to synthesize all or most of the course material. You will determine the topic of this essay. This essay will have two due dates:

April 5: I would like to see a draft introduction and an outline (as well as whatever part of the paper you have written). I would like the introduction to be between 3-5 pages. In this introduction I would like you to include the three elements of an coherent introduction. (See below for suggestions on how to write this essay.) My assessment of your introduction and outline will be 20% of your essay grade (or 10% of your overall grade.)

May 3: Completed comprehensive essay.

An "entry paper"andan"exit paper" are required but not graded.

Note Well: If you are unclear about these expectations or feel that they do not suit your style of learning, please see me in my office. I will do everything I can to accommodate you. However, please see me by Wednesday, February 3. After this date, I will assume that you agree to the above arrangement.

Entry paper: due Wednesday, January 26.

Exit paper: (due date to be announced)
4. A few more words on the design of the course:

I think of the design of a course as similar to a style of music. Most courses follow "classical(European)music" in design. That is, the audience hears music pre-determined by the score. The music may change slightly from performance to performance but this change is not part of the design of classical music. In contrast, Jazz and classical Indian music combine the structure of the tune, the interpretative skill of the players, and the response of the listeners to create a specific structured improvisation. Accordingly, I have designed this course to change from one experience to another according to the interaction of students, instructor, and the reading materials. Thus no classes or experiences should be the same because the interaction of the three differs on each occasion. This design embraces the necessity of collective improvisation.

A Jazz design has consequences for our sense of time in the course. To some the course will feel less structured and slower than what they might expect. The good news is that the course may also feel like something we create together

4. Writing Suggestions for Journals

The purpose of the journal is to create an opportunity for you to write informally. I think this releases the pressure associated with writing more structured essays or papers. Less pressure often means greater creativity and enthusiasm both for writing and for thinking about the subject matter. Less pressure also can mean an ease at exploring alternative sides of an issue as well as a willingness to risk thinking beyond the surface of things. In short, the informality of a journal allows us to write what we really feel as opposed to what we think others expect us to say. But what do I mean by informal?

Please resist the temptation to list a series of thoughts, or to present short paragraphs on a number of issues. Making lists and writing such paragraphs may be a good way to start. But what I would like is for you to select one or two of the most important themes from your list and write at length.

When writing about ideas presented in class or in our texts please resist the temptation to summarize arguments or plots. I am likely to know the material and am more interested in your reactions.

There is an inherent tension in the journal between its 'public' and 'personal' aspects. On the one hand, the journal is about ideas which are being discussed in a 'public' sphere. On the other hand, it is not just about ideas, it is also 'personal.' The journal is about you as a thinking and feeling person. Allow your 'self' to enter the discussion. I am interested in what is at stake for you in the ideas you present. How do the ideas involve, engage, implicate, and construct you? It is important to stay within this tension and avoid the extremes. One extreme is the absence of your self in the prose. This usually creates dry, factual, 'objective' reporting. The other extreme is an absence of public ideas which creates what is merely a personal diary. The journal may be thought of as a diary about ideas.

What should you write about? Anything that connects to our texts, discussions or lectures. These can be world events, campus happenings, conversations, material from other courses, aspects of your life, and, of course, ideas from our readings, lectures and discussions. Write what you feel but then ask yourself why you feel the way you do. Or, write about a competing or alternative theme within the same issue and ask yourself why you feel more than one way on an issue. Pose questions for yourself and try to answer them. As you struggle through this process please keep three things in mind. First, I will help you to understand what I think makes a good journal by providing you with comments on your work. Second, you may not be ready or may not be willing to disclose what you consider your 'private' thoughts to me. Please let me know if this turns out to be the case and I will try to accommodate you. Third, and most important, regardless of the style you use, if you make writing the journal worth your while it is very likely that reading it will be worth my while.
5. Writing Suggestions for Essays

I hesitate to present a set of suggestions on writing essays because they may stifle your style. In addition you may be tempted to follow my suggestions to the letter thereby missing the larger point which has more to do with the attitude you bring to the writing and the tone you create. Nevertheless, I offer these suggestions because you may need and appreciate a certain amount of direction. Also, I wish to emphasize a particular style of writing that I hope you will add to your repertoire of skills - the style of an essay. Please take these instructions as "suggestive" and make your own decision on whether you wish to follow them. I would like to register a warning: While this style of writing may have great personal benefits it is not usually favored. The academy stresses a much more certain and assertive style.