Topics in Literature

3 units

Popular discourses celebrate globalization as a contemporary phenomenon characterized by increased connectivity, access, and diversity. Yet, the proliferation of borders-geographical, legal, and symbolic-radically troubles these idealistic accounts of inclusivity and progress. This course grapples with a range of global Anglophone literatures to explore the dark underside of globalization, minding the unevenness and violences of its histories and structures. Particularly, we will work through a set of literary and theoretical texts to investigate the role of literature and literary criticism in reproducing, complicating, and transforming the very conditions of the "global." Following the routes and historical legacies of colonialism and postcoloniality that structure the modern world, our participation in larger academic conversations will be guided by the following inquiries: How do literary and cultural productions not only reflect, but also produce and uphold the very contours of globalization? How do the proliferation of borders, histories of colonialism, and structures of violence trouble celebratory visions of an increasingly interconnected world? How can we perform readings that attend to a literary text's relationship to power dynamics and the world? The course will draw on writings from such artists and scholars as Aimé Césaire, Michelle Cliff, J. M. Coetzee, Franz Fanon, and Jhumpa Lahiri. This course may fulfill the global or minority literatures requirement for students who declare an English major in the fall 2021 semester and beyond.