Expats, Émigrés, Exiles: 20th/21st Century Transatlantic Writers

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

While both liberal and conservative political commentators of the late 20th century promised capitalist globalization as the best solution for the political violences begotten by the nation-state, current political crises have repeatedly reaffirmed that the so-called “end of history” has not diminished the visibility or authority of the nation as a dominant political unit. In fact, in our contemporary marked by increasingly ascendant campaigns of military proliferation, economic protectionism, and anti-immigrant patriotism, it appears that the aggressive maintenance of nationhood has not dissipated and is as prevalent as ever. In Expats, Émigrés, Exiles, we will examine poetry, fiction, and film produced by writers known for international itinerancy, both in their art and in their personal lives. By reading and viewing media marked by transatlantic movement, this course will be well-positioned to ask “how did writers of the 20th and 21st centuries both reify the idea of the nation and refuse acquiescence to national identity?” We will track conceptions of national character from the early 20th century to the present. In a contemporary distinguished by political trends of rigid national demarcation, we seek to explore how poets, novelists, and filmmakers of the last century reinforced and complicated national identification.