Syllabus
4 Oct: Introduction11 Oct:Editors. “World Lite: What Is Global Literature?” N+1 17 (Fall 2013)Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Born Translated: The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature (2015), Introduction18 Oct:Mohsin Hamid, Exit West (2017)Tim Parks, “The Dull New Global Novel,” “Writing Adrift in the World” from Where I’m Reading From: The Changing World of Books (2015)25 Oct:Alexander Beecroft, An Ecology of World Literature: From Antiquity to the Present Day (2015), ch. 6, “Global Literature”Jhumpa Lahiri, “A Temporary Matter” from Interpreter of Maladies (1999)1 Nov:Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy (1990)8 Nov:Kazuo Ishiguro, “A Family Supper” (1983)Rachel L.
Walkowitz, Born Translated: The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature (2015), ch. 4 “This Is Not Your Language”15 Nov:Jeffrey VanderMeer, Annihilation (2014)22 Nov:Daljit Nagra, poems from Look We Have Coming to Dover!: Darling & Me!, Booking Khan Singh Kumar, Sajid Naqvi, Yobbos!, Parade's End29 Nov:China Mièville, Embassytown (2011), up to the end of Part 1 (“Income”)6 Dec:Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup (2001)13 Dec:Stephanie Burt, Advice from the Lights (2017), selectionThomas Fink, “A Proliferation of Differences,” rev. of Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetics, ed. T.
C. Tolbert and Tim Trace Peterson (2014)Tommy Pico, IRL (2016), selectionEileen Myles, “An American Poem” (1991)Stephanie Burt, “Trans 101,” rev. of C.
N. Lester, Trans Like Me: A journey for all of us, by C.
N. Lester, and The Gender Games: The problem with men and women, by Juno Dawson.
TLS Oct. 17, 2017.20 Dec:Madhur Jaffrey, An Invitation to Indian Cooking (1973), IntroductionElizabeth Buettner, “‘Going for an Indian’: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain,” from Curried Cultures: Globalization, Food, and South Asia (2012), ed. Krishnendu Ray and Tulasi Srinivas.10 Jan:William Trevor, Nights at the Alexandra (1987)Yiyun Li “To Speak Is to Blunder but I Venture,” “Reading William Trevor ” from Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life (2017)
Annotation
Anglophone literature is now being produced in countries where English is not the first language (and sometimes not the mother tongue of the writer). This course examines instances of this, in an attempt to apprehend the larger framework within which this work now circulates.
We will also look at writers who, although they come from countries where English is often the mother tongue, are best understood outside national frameworks. Ranging through critical theories such as transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, and World Literature, we’ll consider a wide range of genres, for instance, science fiction, reportage, literary fiction, cookery books, speculative fiction and philosophy.