English 144 - World Lit In English
Fall
2017
01
4.00
Sohini Banerjee
TU TH 10:00AM 11:15AM
UMass Amherst
30784
Study of major literary texts in English from different parts of a postcolonial "third world" -- African countries, the Caribbean, and India. Commonalities and differences in literary development in postcolonial nations. (Gen.Ed. AL, G)
Open to first year students in the Literary Perspectives RAP in Van Meter. ENGLISH 144-01
See http://www.umass.edu/rap/literary-perspectives-rap
In this course, we will be studying global Anglophone (English-speaking) urban fiction from the 20th and 21st century representing a selection of cities across the world. Journeying across the globe through New York, Johannesburg, London, Lahore and Lagos, among others, we will analyze the rhythms of lived experience that these cities produce and the histories they create, considering both the successes and pitfalls of urban construction.
Cities have always been viewed as important centers of commerce and culture: spaces which promise prosperity but are also essentially unequal, irreparably divided and policed. While cities have influenced and inspired literary output in exciting and innovative ways, literature too has both directly and indirectly influenced the depiction and representation of the urban experience.
Through close reading, we will think critically about the ways in which these global cities were born and built and how they shape the lives of those within them. This course will seek to uncover the answers to questions about the connections of lived experiences, literature, and urbanity, including:
(1) How do the unique geo-locations of cities frame the culture and politics within these cities?
(2) In what ways do issues of gender and sexuality intersect with narratives of urbanity?
(3) How do cities become a network of spaces controlling the rhetoric of development and modernity?
(4) How do authors write the lofty and fractured experience of the global city?
(5) What are the poetics and politics of writing cities?
Possible authors may include: Teju Cole, Orhan Pamuk, Ivan Vladislavic, Zadie Smith, Yvonne Vera, Chris Abani, Lauren Beukes, amongst others.
See http://www.umass.edu/rap/literary-perspectives-rap
In this course, we will be studying global Anglophone (English-speaking) urban fiction from the 20th and 21st century representing a selection of cities across the world. Journeying across the globe through New York, Johannesburg, London, Lahore and Lagos, among others, we will analyze the rhythms of lived experience that these cities produce and the histories they create, considering both the successes and pitfalls of urban construction.
Cities have always been viewed as important centers of commerce and culture: spaces which promise prosperity but are also essentially unequal, irreparably divided and policed. While cities have influenced and inspired literary output in exciting and innovative ways, literature too has both directly and indirectly influenced the depiction and representation of the urban experience.
Through close reading, we will think critically about the ways in which these global cities were born and built and how they shape the lives of those within them. This course will seek to uncover the answers to questions about the connections of lived experiences, literature, and urbanity, including:
(1) How do the unique geo-locations of cities frame the culture and politics within these cities?
(2) In what ways do issues of gender and sexuality intersect with narratives of urbanity?
(3) How do cities become a network of spaces controlling the rhetoric of development and modernity?
(4) How do authors write the lofty and fractured experience of the global city?
(5) What are the poetics and politics of writing cities?
Possible authors may include: Teju Cole, Orhan Pamuk, Ivan Vladislavic, Zadie Smith, Yvonne Vera, Chris Abani, Lauren Beukes, amongst others.