Studies in Postcolonial Literature (365-0-21)

Topic

Imaginary Homelands: South Asian Literatures in En

Instructors

Kalyan Nadiminti

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 214: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

South Asian writers seen to win a lot of literary prizes. Ever since Salman Rushdie catapulted to international fame with the Booker Prize in 1981, writers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have become the mainstay of not only literary prize cultures and the festival circuit but also U.S. university campuses. What has made South Asian literature so popular, especially when it deals with somber questions of anticolonial resistance, postcolonial nation-building, violence, and loss? This course will introduce students to twentieth and twenty-first century South Asian Literatures in English characterized by exciting stylistic innovations in magical realism, modernist language games, lyrical prose, and biting satire. By examining novels, short stories, poems, political writing, and films, we will ask, how has literature shaped both the promise and failure of the postcolonial nation-state? What might South Asian writing teach us about the global project of democratic world-making? Topics of discussion will include gender, caste, empire, globalization, migrancy, and environmentalism.

Teaching Method

Discussion/seminar.

Evaluation Method

Attendance/participation/papers.

Class Materials (Required)

Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable. ISBN-13: 978-0141393605
Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children. ISBN-13: 978-0812976533
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things. ISBN-13: 978-0812979657

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Pre-registration -- Reserved for English and Creative Writing students.