| As English majors, we need to know that "English" is not
always British, and "American"--not necessarily the U.S. How
about English Literature? British and U.S. literature?
In the past, maybe, but now in the age of postcolonialism -- definitely
no.
English literatures are all the literatures
written in English in 1.) the U.S. and U.K., and in 2.) the English-speaking
countries in areas ranging from Africa, South Asia, South-East Asia,
East Asia (e.g. Hong Kong), South Pacific area (e.g. Australia & New
Zealand), the Caribbean area, to North America (e.g. Canada).
(See Map.) To distinguish the latters
from the formers, we call the latters -- world literatures written in
English, or postcolonial (Third World) literature in English, or New
English literatures.
Since world literatures written in English
cover so many nations with their distinct national/racial cultures, it
is hardly possible to generalize about them, not to mention teaching them
all in one course. These literatures, however, do have
common concerns, their nations having all experienced imperialism and colonization,
and their peoples, immigration and frequently more than once.
Among the common cercerns there are: influences of colonization,
possibilities of decolonization and defining national identity,
power relations (between the colonizer and the colonized, dominant
group and minorities). These national literatures, moreover,
are linked to each other by the large flows of immigrants of Chinese, African
and/or Indian descent--what is called Chinese, African and Indian diasporas
(Â÷´²±Ú¸s).
To do a focused survey of world literatures
in English, this course chooses literatures (short stories, novel excerpts
and poems) in the Indian subcontinent (including Pakistan and India),
the Caribbean area (including Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica), and Canada,
as well as those by diasporic/immigrant writers from these areas such as
Salman Rushdie, Jean Rhys, Michael Ondaatje, V.S. Naipaul., etc.
(See the black areas on Map.)
Our central questions are:
-
What is colonization? Is de-colonization possible?
-
How is national identity defined after the end of official colonization?
Can traditional culture not be contaminated by colonial culture?
-
What gets involved in immigration? Identity crisis or cultural exchange/transformation,
social mobility/climbing or different forms of racism?
Heavy reading (each week about 50
pages' prose writing or fewer for poems) will be required to avoid the
superficial understanding of these literatures. On the other hand,
history, films (e.g. Salaam Bombay, Wide Sargarso Sea, Exotica
), and popular songs (e.g. Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen) will be used to help
us visualize, enter and understand the national cultures. You are
also encouraged to bring in other relevant texts from popular culture of
these areas.
As we move from Indian subcontinent to
the Caribbean, and then to Canada, the diasporic writers (e.g. Indian-Caribbean,
African-Caribbean, Indian-Caribbean-Canadian) will help connect the different
regions. At the end, with discussion of Chinese-Canadian texts, we
hope to come back to Taiwan and discuss local engagement in the issues
we focus on in class; that is, (de-)colonization, national identity and
migration. |
