SOUTHEAST ASIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH

Credit Hours: 3 · Undergraduate Upper-Level Course URL: english.rice.edu

An introductory course that surveys the literary history of English-language writing in Southeast Asia. This course examines twentieth- and twenty-first-century novels, short stories, and poetry from across the region, with a primary focus on literature from former colonies of the British and American empires—namely, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Attention will also be given to Vietnamese literature grappling with the legacies of American military intervention in the region. Situating this dynamic writing within the historical, cultural, and sociopolitical contexts of Southeast Asia, this course will introduce students to shared thematic engagements with anticolonial nationalism, the aftermath of war, modernization, urbanization, and globalization.