CMPL 377 - Migrant Subjects and the Postcolonial Novel

FC ARHU CD WINT

4 credits
The experiences of migrant subjects from former colonies has been central to the anglophone postcolonial novel. “Migrants,” says Rushdie, “impose their needs on the new earth, bringing their own coherence to the newfound land, imagining it afresh.” But migrants also simultaneously negotiate the ideological needs and values of the host. This course will address such negotiations through work by diasporic writers like Aslam, Cliff, Ishiguro, Kanafani, Manto, Rushdie, and others. Invoking theoretical frameworks elaborated by scholars like Bhabha, Hall, and Said, we will explore migrants’ desire to incorporate, challenge, resist, or redefine the host via recourse to their migrant identities.

This course is cross-listed with ENGL-376