Postcolonial theory bears the honor of being a mode of inquiry declared dead many, many times—even by scholars associated with the theory through the early years of its development. This course will provide a critical introduction to postcolonial theory by working through the political and epistemological antagonisms that were at once constitutive of and destructive of postcolonial theory’s coherence. In so doing, we will consider questions pertaining to contemporary politics and economies of institutional knowledge: Why do modes of inquiry rise and fall? If fewer and fewer scholars undertake work under the banner of postcolonial theory today, what forms of knowledge bear the trace of the postcolonial moment? Units will include “Postcolonialism and Third Worldism,” “Postcolonialism and Marxism,” “Postcolonialism and Globalization,” Postcolonialism and World Literature,” “Postcolonialism and Indigeneity,” and more. (20th/21st)