What are the legacies of colonial epistemologies within legislation, prosecution and/or legal activism today? Homosexuality in one or more former British colonies.
Unit name : Colonialism, Sexual Offences and Law .
Maximum 2000 words !!! Please don’t go over this limit.
Essay Q.
What are the legacies of colonial epistemologies within legislation, prosecution and/or legal activism today? Homosexuality in one or more former British colonies.
The essay should cover the colonial era (sexual crimes (homosexuality) of colonists in the colonial era and postcolonial era) to the current situation, how these crimes are reflected in today’s legislation, politics, prosecutions and legal practice.
Using a theoretical basis !!! (Said “Orientalism”; Spivak “Epistemic violence”); Foucault.
Structure
An introduction should introduce the topic , set argument of the essay and layout of the essay .
A conclusion should sum up the arguments .
Argument
Analise rather describe .
Use a theoretical Framework ( Said “Orientalism ” ; Spivak “Epistemic violence “); Foucault.
Please use quotations to support our arguments .
Referencing
Nearly every sentencing needs a citation .
Reading list :
1.Imperial leather: race, gender, and sexuality in the colonial conquest. by Anne McClintock. 1995 . pp18-56
2.Transnational LGBT Activism and UK-Based NGOs: colonialism and power .by Matthew Farmer. 2020 chapter 3; 4.
. Said, E. (1978) Orientalism, Pantheon.
The Buggery Act 1533
Spivak, G. (2010) Can the Subaltern Speak? Reflections on the history of an idea, Columbia UP.
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/marc-parry . Uncovering the brutal truth about the British empire.
Burton, R. (1885) Terminal Essay of translation of One Thousand and One Nights, Kama Shastra Society.
Huynh, T. (2008) Loathing and Love: Postcard Representations of Indentured Chinese Laborers in South Africa’s Reconstruction, 1904-10 in Safundi 9(4):395-425.
Kennedy, V. (2017) Orientalism in the Victorian Era in Oxford Research Encylopedia of Literature, pp.1-89.
Foucault, M. (1978) The History of Sexuality: The will to knowledge,
Weeks, J. (1977) Coming out: Homosexual Politics in Britain, from the Nineteenth Century to the Present, Quartet.
Mottier V, (1998) Sexuality and sexology: Michel Foucault, in T.Carver and V.Mottier (eds) Politics of Sexuality: Identity, Gender, Citizenship, Routledge, pp.113-123
Biko Agozino and the rise of post-colonial criminology. Webpage by Temitope Babatunde Oriola.
Can the subaltern speak?: reflections on the history of an idea. Book by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak 2010
Quotes (might be helpful).
Science/medicine created “the permanent distinction between what is normal and abnormal, and the perpetual task of restoring the system of normality.”
(Foucault, 1999:353)
power/knowledge makes possible] the formation of a “reverse” discourse: homosexuality began to speak in its own behalf, to demand that its legitimacy or “naturality” be acknowledged, often in the same vocabulary, using the same categories by which it was medically disqualified.
(Foucault, 1978:101)
Where there is power, there is resistance.
(Foucault, 1990: 95)
Might be helpful.
Understanding of orientalism through the case study of Richard Burton.
Examined and critically reflected on the shift from homosexuality as a sinful act to homosexuality as a pathological identity through the work of Michel Foucault and situated the Criminal Law Amendment Act within this framework, and thus
Identified the knowledge/epistemic violence that underpinned this construction and what knowledge it (re)produced.
And thus, critically reflected on the ways in which law reflects, maintains and reproduces social, sexual and racial hierarchies.
