English 474 - Transpacific Literatures and Methods

(Offered as ENGL 474 and AAPI 474) This seminar  draws on transpacific literatures and methods to examine the relationship between narrative and ecology. “Ecology” as a field of scientific study concerns the “relationships between people, social groups, and their environment” (OED). Throughout the course, we will draw on transpacific frameworks to reflect on how the transits of people, and the circulation of ideas, capital, and materials structures impact ecologies and the relationships between people, communities, and non-human lives. While drawing from critical perspectives in Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander studies, our readings will center Indigenous Pacific writers and ecologies. We will consider questions such as: How does narrative shape or reflect how we relate to the environment in ways that are racialized and gendered? What is the role of the writer or artist in addressing climate catastrophe? And can literature and art transform our relations with the more-than-human agents with whom we inhabit shared ecologies? From the afterlives of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands to the desecration of land and ancestral graves in the militarization of Okinawa, environmental harm has not gone uncontested. In the words of Marshallese poet Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, artists have shown there are many ways of “writing the tide” towards environmental justice (“Two Degrees”). Writers and artists may include Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Teresia Teaiwa, Minoli Salgado, Viet Thanh Nguyen, An-My Lê, Grace Mera Molisa, Déwé Gorodé, and Tsuyoshi Shima. 

Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Saito.

How to handle overenrollment: Preference given to English and AAPI majors.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: developing individual research projects, curating a research bibliography, and writing a seminar paper.