Course Description
What makes certain literatures “global”? Is “global” literature simply literature about non-Western locations? How does imperialism impact the transnational movement of feminist, queer and trans literatures? How do the concepts of race, gender, and sexuality travel transnationally, and how does this movement impact aesthetic forms? How do certain literatures allow us to decolonize our current notion of the world? These are some of the questions we will address in this course. As we explore how different writers construct narratives of gender and sexuality, we will complicate the categorization of certain non-Western literatures as “global” by encountering theories of postcolonialism, decoloniality, transnationalism, diaspora, and racialization. We will also discuss how different meanings of gendered and sexual social change are shaped by colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, and neoliberalism.
This course will allow students to conceptualize how feminist, queer, and trans social movements travel across borders, and how this movement impacts the production and reception of non-Western literatures. In doing so, we will examine how U.S. imperialism and European colonialism regulate the narrative construction of race, nation, gender and sexuality. This course will also encourage students to creatively and radically re-imagine the category "global literature." We will read fiction by writers like Tsitsi Dangarembga, Chinelo Okparanta, Jackie Kay, Kai Cheng Thom and Shani Mootoo, and theoretical works by scholars such as Hazel Carby, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Jamaica Kincaid, Harsha Walia, Angela Davis, and Keguro Macharia. |
Required Texts:
Please purchase these texts:*
1) Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga 2) Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta 3) Trumpet by Jackie Kay 4) Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom *If you cannot purchase the texts, please talk to me during the first week of classes. |
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the semester, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate familiarity and facility with fundamental terminology and concepts associated with the analysis of "global" literature.
2. Demonstrate critical thinking in the evaluation of feminist, queer, and trans theoretical and literary work in terms of the intersections of gender, sexuality, geographical location, and race.
3. Describe how the figurative use of language in postcolonial and diasporic literatures is related to contemporary ways of thinking, cultural heritage, and cultural values.
4. Critically examine how feminist, queer and trans cultural productions converse with contemporary global, colonial, and racial politics.
5. Demonstrate the ability to formulate a thesis about a text and to support the thesis with textual evidence, close reading, and argumentation.
By the end of the semester, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate familiarity and facility with fundamental terminology and concepts associated with the analysis of "global" literature.
2. Demonstrate critical thinking in the evaluation of feminist, queer, and trans theoretical and literary work in terms of the intersections of gender, sexuality, geographical location, and race.
3. Describe how the figurative use of language in postcolonial and diasporic literatures is related to contemporary ways of thinking, cultural heritage, and cultural values.
4. Critically examine how feminist, queer and trans cultural productions converse with contemporary global, colonial, and racial politics.
5. Demonstrate the ability to formulate a thesis about a text and to support the thesis with textual evidence, close reading, and argumentation.