COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course offers a comparative perspective on postcolonialism and postcommunism against the epistemic background of late modernity/postmodernity, an age when the old political and economic scaffolding of both capitalist and communist empires collapses only to give way to new forms of domination. Hence, the course treats former colonies and former satellite communist states as siblings of subalter(n)ity. The aim is to highlight generic and structural similarities between traumatized post-imperialist cultures, on the one hand, and historical and ideological differences, on the other. Also, I am expecting that, by the end of the course, students will be able to import some methodological instruments of postcolonial criticism into the study of postcommunism, as well as to use postcommunist scholarship as an ideological moderator for the hegemonic first/third-world-oriented discourses in postcolonialism.

While theoretical and methodological reflexivity is thoroughly pursued in the various sessions, efforts are made to offer a lively picture of postcommunist discourse in Romania by means of memorable and stylistically consummate texts by foremost Romanian authors. They are always to be approached contrastively, with a view to the aims outlined above.

The agenda of this course is to rekindle the militant relevance and political involvement of cultural studies in the new context of postcommunist Romania. Postcolonial criticism has always been an effort on behalf of minor/marginal cultures not only to expose and understand the way in which a hegemonic center subdued and manipulated the development of their identity, but also to resist that pressure and rectify their situation. By turning the critical lens of cultural studies on Romania’s own recent history as a marginalized and abused culture, the course is prompting students to engage their own colonized identities and to take a stance in terms of cultural politics.

Saturday, February 22, 2020

LETTERS - Course Prerequisites/Cerințe

Students will not secure a pass for this course unless they have met ALL the requirements below (even for resits/reexaminations):
1. ATTENDANCE [+ COMPENSATING ESSAY WHERE NECESSARY];
2. PRESENTATION/SHORT ESSAY;
3. PORTFOLIO OF READING NOTES FOR AT LEAST 3/4 OF THE MANDATORY BIBLIOGRAPHY;
4. FINAL EXAM.

• ATTENDANCE.
Attendance is mandatory for at least 50% of all actual meetings or you will not get a pass. Student evaluation will be based, among other criteria, on attendance percentage and in-class participation to debates.

• IN-CLASS REQUIREMENTS.
Professorial input for this course will only occasionally involve traditional lecturing; an important part of the class will be based on debates on assigned texts/topics and on moderated discussions. Consequently, each student’s performance in the weekly meetings is crucial for his/her evaluation.

    1. PRESENTATION/SHORT ESSAY.
Students may volunteer for a 15-MINUTE IN-CLASS PRESENTATION counting for their in-class performance grade. This means they will have to deliver (not read!) a critical presentation of a text/topic in 10-15 minutes, which will be basis of a subsequent class debate. All presentations must be assisted by handouts and/or media material (PowerPoint etc.).
Alternatively, students will hand in a 3-PAGE ESSAY discussing a text from the mandatory bibliography.
Volunteering for in-class presentations will earn the student 2 bonus points for the presentation/short essay grade.

    2. PARTICIPATION IN DEBATES. 
Students will also be assessed for their contribution to in-class discussions and debates.

    3. CLOSE READING/STUDY OF SEMINAR TEXTS.
All students must study closely the selected text(s) for each seminar (not just those who are assigned presentations). Quizzes may be expected as well as verification of personal reading notes for each seminar.

• RULES FOR IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENTS.
- Students SHOULD ENLIST for an assignment (presentation/essay) NO LATER THAN THE SECOND MEETING.
- Failure to DELIVER THE IN-CLASS PRESENTATION AT THE EXACT SCHEDULED TIME will be marked as 0 (nil) and the grade will be compounded with the mark for the short essay.
- Failure to HAND IN THE SHORT ESSAY BY THE ANNOUNCED DEADLINE will attract a deduction of up to 2 points from the mark for the short essay.

Students will not be awarded a grade for this course (i.e., will not pass) unless they have completed their seminar assignments (i.e., WRITTEN ESSAY/PRESENTATION, CLOSE READING OF TEXTS FOR DISCUSSION, PARTICIPATION IN DEBATES).

• CRITICAL METHODOLOGY FOR INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS.
-The theme/topic and scope of each presentation/short essay, and final essay will be NEGOTIATED IN ADVANCE with the course director.
-The THEME AND CRITICAL FRAMEWORK MUST BE CLEARLY STATED both in the actual delivery and in the written form of the presentation. Presentations/essays must also have a FIRM OUTLINE and come as a HEADED ARGUMENT.
-The outline of the argument together with key concepts, quotes, and illustrations should appear in a concise, yet sufficiently clear HANDOUT for teacher and fellow students.
-For presentations, short essays, and debates of the seminar bibliography, the students are expected to CRITICALLY PROCESS the text they are presenting. This involves, among other things:
   extracting the outline of the main argument in the text, 
   rearranging and selecting the ideas of the text in accordance with the student's personal prioritization, 
   suggesting points of contention and avenues for debate, 
   highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the text, and, just as importantly, 
   suggesting how the text could become relevant for the student's own cultural background and lifestyle.
- The critical framework for assignments should be derived from the methodology or the bibliography for this course.

• SENDING IN YOUR ASSIGNMENTS.
- All reading notes are to be delivered as a single file.doc (Word), .pdf (Adobe) or .zip (WinZip or 7z) archive files.
- Email your assignments to bogdan.stefanescu@lls.unibuc.ro.
- State your name and class in the subject line ("[LAST NAME], [FIRST NAME], LETTERS Assignments") and sign your email adding the name of your MA program. 
- Attach the essay and the reading notes file. These 2 files should be titled: “LETT_[LAST NAME FIRST NAME]_Critical Essay” and “LETT_[LAST NAME FIRST NAME]_Reading Notes”, respectively. E.g., LETT_Johnson Terry_Critical Essay.doc
ALSO:
- Essays will not be considered unless they are mounted on the Turnitin platform. - Create an account at http://www.turnitin.com/ro/home:  Class ID: 24011934; Class Key: LETT20
Find more details at Turnitin Guides (link).

N.B. One standard page is 2000 characters with spaces or about 300 words (cf. Tools-Word Count menu in Microsoft Word). Only computer-processed work will be considered for evaluation. All essays and coursework must be emailed to me. Keep copies of all your work and double-check that your emails have actually reached me.


• DEADLINES
    Deadline for email submissions of short essays and reading notes: first day of the last week of classes.

    • COMPUTATION OF GRADE.
    - Grading IN-CLASS PERFORMANCE will reflect:
    1) the assignment (the presentation or short essay) = 33%;
    2) participation in the seminar debates = 33%;
    3) preparation (close reading and reading notes) and attendance = 33%.

    - THE IN-CLASS MARK WILL COUNT AS HALF OF THE OVERALL SCORE, THE OTHER HALF IS THE FINAL EXAM.

    - The student must get a pass IN BOTH MARKS (in-class performance and the final essay). A fail in one of the marks automatically triggers a fail in the overall grade.

    • FINAL ESSAY.
    The final written assignment is a 6-PAGE CRITICAL ESSAY. In order for the essay to be taken into consideration it must:
    a) be based on PRELIMINARY NEGOTIATION of the theme, the approach, the format and the structure of the argument,
    b) have a CLEARLY STATED THEME, APPROACH AND STRUCTURE,
    c) comply with the STYLE OF AN ACADEMIC CRITICAL ESSAY (references and quotations, cited works/bibliography, notes, editing etc.) This course accepts the MLA STYLE (see MLA Style from Purdue University - link).

    - Please note that the theme has to deal with the discourse post-dependence reconstruction of a former Western or Soviet colony and that the approach must come from the methodology and the bibliography for this course.
    Work in the form of personal essay, editorial journalism, or historical overview will not be taken into account.

    - Failure to HAND IN THE FINAL ESSAY BY THE ANNOUNCED DEADLINE will attract a deduction of up to 2 points from the mark for the final essay.

    - Any form of PLAGIARISM (http://www.plagiarism.org/) in this course will automatically result in a FAIL and in the suggestion to the board that the culprit be EXPELLED.

    • MALFUNCTIONS/TROUBLESHOOTING. 
    Should any problems arise regarding the bibliography and its availability to students or the impossibility to meet a deadline or other requirements, please NOTIFY YOUR COURSE DIRECTOR (that would be me) ASAP at stefbogdan@gmail.com or by SMS. No excuses will be accepted unless a solution has previously been attempted with the course director/BCSC management. All other malfunctions should be reported ASAP to the course director or to the BCSC management team.
    Posted by Bogdan Stefanescu at 8:37 AM
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