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Studies in Colonial & Postcolonial Lit (465-0-20)

Topic

Terror in the Postcolony

Instructors

Kalyan Sunder Sameer Nadiminti

Meeting Info

University Library 3622: Thurs 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

From British mutiny novels to contemporary US fiction, terrorism has had a long literary history. Imperial sedition laws marking colonized subjects as insurgents continue to operate in South Asia well into the twenty-first century; the rhetoric of the US-led "Global War on Terror" has sparked a new method of postcolonial securitization. This course will embark on a comparative expedition that follows the affordances and differences between colonial/postcolonial South Asia and contemporary US empire through literature, history, and theory. We will grapple with political concepts like mutiny, Naxalism, separatism, counterinsurgency and securitization by reading contemporary novels, poetry, prison memoirs, and graphic novels from South Asia, Middle East, and the US. "Terror in the Postcolony" will explore colonial, postcolonial and US imperial representations of anti-state violence that complicate the ideology of terrorism by turning to literary resistance. Works may include Rudyard Kipling's Kim, Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of the Towers, Malik Sajad's Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir, Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire, Solmaz Sharif's Look, and Aria Aber's Hard Damage. Theoretical works will be drawn from Edward Said, Eqbal Ahmed, Jasbir Puar, Simone Browne, Erica Edwards, Stuart Schrader, and Darryl Li.