English 392NP - Advanced Topics in English: 'World Literature and the Nobel Prize'

Alfred Nobel intended for the Nobel Prize in Literature to be awarded to "the most outstanding work in an ideal direction." In this course, we will use the Nobel Prize in Literature as a way of thinking about the fields of World Literature and Global Anglophone Literature. We will read works by Nobel Prize winners such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Doris Lessing, Alice Munro, Kenzaburo Oe, and Toni Morrison and analyze cultural and critical theory by Arjun Appadurai and Rebecca Walkowitz. We will examine narrative form and cultural and historical contexts, while considering what these authors reveal about the changing sensibilities of the Academy and the construction of "world literature" today.

Course limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors; Prereq: 8 credits in English.