UNIT 1 - Identities

INTRODUCTION: Country and People: What about Argentina?

1) REVISION OF BRITAIN AND THE USA. Before going on with the unit, let’s make an
integration of the topics worked so far.

(See the Powerpoint Presentation on campus. LINK 1:

https://campusvirtual.unpaz.edu.ar/)

So far, we have been working on two fields: literature (poems to help us understand how
figurative language is constructed) and culture (aspects related to the UK and the USA). Now,
it’s time to systematise and go beyond.

2) ARGENTINA. Imagine yourself as a teacher. Your class is invited to participate in an

international exchange where each group shares information about their own culture.

What aspects of Argentinian culture, history and present do you think could be
relevant to share?

Think about these questions in groups and brainstorm ideas.Write them down and share with
the class.

3) Now, it’s your turn to do research and prepare posters! Prepare a digital/paper poster
that you could use as an example to guide your students. You can consider some of
these ideas:

1
 4) MALVINAS: In order to learn more about this conflict, we invite you to visit the websites
and follow the links on campus. Which ones called your attention the most and why?
Imagine yourself in 10 years: you are a teacher already and it’s the 50th anniversary.
Would you use any of these materials to help your students understand what happened?
How?

LINK 2: Los olvidados: Poelía Malvinas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noA6ceBHtzs&feature=youtu.be

LINK 3: Malvinas Haikus de Guerra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSPzWeJ6Asc&feature=youtu.be

LINK 4: MALVINAS HOMENAJE DE IRLANDA

(3) Islas Malvinas Argentinas Homenaje de Irlanda - YouTube

2
LINK 5: Chen Haitken Video Marcha de Malvinas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pis2-wwLRJQ&feature=youtu.be

COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL

The case of Malvinas and the history of confrontation between England and Argentina over
these southern territories helps shed light on the issue of colonialism.

COLONIALISM

Pope, R. (2002). The English Studies Book: An Introduction to Language, Literature and
Culture. Routledge: London. (pages 141-143).

Colonisation – a varied and ongoing process

‘Colonisation’ is the activity of making colonies. ‘Colonialism’ is the state of being a colony. Both terms ultimately
derive from the Latin colonia, meaning ‘farm’ or ‘settlement’. Both therefore also share a common root with the
word ‘culture’, through Latin colere (past. part. cultum) – ‘to grow’. As currently used, colonisation (the active
noun we shall stick with here) is an all-purpose term which can embrace many different relations amongst peoples
and things and places. In British colonisation alone we may distinguish the following kinds and stages from the
twelfth to the twentieth centuries:

● ‘internal’ colonisation within the British Isles by England of Wales, Ireland and Scotland, involving
successive ‘plantations’ of English settlers and displacements or ‘clearances’ of natives from the Western
Isles to the Highlands; also ‘enclosures’ of common land and evictions of natives within England.
● ‘external’ colonisation beyond the British Isles in what became successively the British Empire and (from
1931) the Commonwealth.

The internal–external dynamic of the processes of colonisation within and beyond Britain and America must also
be appreciated. Many of the people who were the first English settlers (farmers, miners, craftspeople and traders,

3
 as well as soldiers and sailors) emigrated out of necessity or compulsion, not out of choice. Often they had been
dispossessed in Britain as a result of land enclosures and clearances (especially in Ireland, Scotland and the Home
Counties).

Theoretically as well as practically, it is important to distinguish the various participants in the processes of
colonisation:

● the colonisers, ‘foreigners’, those who initially come from elsewhere;

● the colonised, ‘natives’, those who were born in the place (from Latin natus – ‘born’; cf. nation);
● slaves, who were often neither colonisers nor colonised but forcibly brought from elsewhere, and
therefore were both ‘foreign’ and ‘non-native’ in their new place.

It is also important to observe that over time the families of colonisers may become second-, third- and fourth-
generation settlers, and therefore are also ‘natives’ in that they too were ‘born’ there. Settlers may also have
interbred with the initial natives, thus complicating issues still further. Moreover, taking a still longer historical
view, we must also recognise that many of the colonised have themselves at some time been colonisers
(displacing and perhaps dispossessing other peoples). Colonisers, too, may well have been colonised at some
point in their past. Thus in Britain the Normans colonised the Germanic tribes who themselves had colonised the
Celts.

5) Highlight 3 important words in this definition and think about a definition you could use to
explore this complex concept with children (9 to 14 year-olders).

6) WHAT IS POSTCOLONIALISM? What ideas come to your mind when we add the prefix
POST to the word COLONIAL? Think and brainstorm.

Next class we will delve into this issue further. It’s important that you have read the Introduction
to the book The Empire Writes Back in order to make your contributions to the debate. It’s a good
idea to print this material, highlight it, write questions or marginal notes.

POSTCOLONIALISM

Pope, R. (2002). The English Studies Book: An Introduction to Language, Literature and
Culture. Routledge: London. (page 144).

Postcolonialism, as such, can be broadly and theoretically defined as ‘what grows out of and away from

4
 colonialism’. The term expresses a state which is both continuous with and distinct from that which it succeeds.
Postcolonialism, more narrowly and historically defined, is usually understood to refer to the state of those
countries which achieved formal political independence from Britain (and from other Western European powers
such as Spain, France, Portugal, Holland, Belgium and Germany) from the mid-twentieth century onwards. As far
as Britain is concerned, many of these countries became – and some still are – members of the British
Commonwealth (first recognised in 1931). However, as the above more complex and flexible definitions of post/
colonialism imply (embracing the simultaneous presence of both colonial and postcolonial states) Britain and
America can be characterised as being in both colonial and postcolonial conditions virtually since the beginning of
modern history. In this respect, the most recent, successful independence movement by a British colony within
Britain was that of Eire (Southern Ireland) in 1922. Scotland and Wales gained a regional Parliament and Assembly,
respectively, at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Britain’s most recent colonial ‘war’ was with Argentina
over the Falkland Islands/Malvinas in 1982.

FURTHER READING

As an optional activity, we would like to share with you some works we have presented in
different congresses or publications. We understand that starting a dialogue between
professors and students over issues that interest us and that are somehow related to the
subject may contribute to the discussion. Besides, the value of locally produced materials
increases when taken to the classroom. So, feel free to read and comment!

The first paper we will invite you to read is the following, and you will find it on campus,
together with an introductory by Prof. Mariana Spina, the author of this work.

Spina, M. (2021) Uso del Hiberno-inglés en la literatura irlandesa: Breve análisis de la novela Las
Cenizas de Ángela de Frank McCourt. SUPLEMENTO Ideas, II, 8, pp. 283-294. Buenos Aires:
Universidad del Salvador. Escuela de Lenguas Modernas. ISSN 2796-7417. Online:
https://p3.usal.edu.ar/index.php/ideassup/issue/view/400