01  MTH1  CAC  69742  MATHES  MU-213

This course examines twentieth-century literature that depicts moments of global contact, conflict, and identity formation from a variety of national and cultural perspectives.  A goal of our work in the class will be to conceptualize a long history of twentieth century globalization through the literary imagination; charting flows and moments of contact that move between formations of colonial, postcolonial, transnational, diasporic, modern, and postmodern experience.  We will be particularly concerned with analyzing the ways in which issues of form and aesthetic craft are used to represent the complex relationships between identities, geographic spaces, and political histories.

Texts for this course may include: Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad), Notebook of a Return to My Native Land (Aime Cesaire), Labyrinths (Jose Luis Borges), The Story of the Cannibal Woman (Maryse Conde), The Names (Don DeLillo), The Bridge of Beyond (Simone Schwarz-Bart), Woman Between Mirrors (Helena Parente Cunha), Waiting for the Barabarians (J.M. Coetzee), The Fight (Norman Mailer), If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (Italo Calvino), Mayombe (Pepetela), A Personal Matter (Kanzaburo Oe), Heart of Redness (Zakes Mda)

Requirements: 2 essays , midterm exam, class participation