Shame, Colonialism, Ethics

This course constructs a dialogue between debates on post-Holocaust aesthetics ("Is poetry possible after Auschwitz?") and the central questions of postcolonial theory ("Can the Subaltern Speak?"), and considers the ethical and aesthetic salience of shame. It is organized around three writers whose work suggests that the novel form itself might require decolonization: Naipaul, Coetzee and Caryl Phillips. Enrollment limited to 15.