"The world is big. Some people are unable to comprehend that simple fact. They want the world on their own terms, its peoples just like them and their friends, its places like the manicured little patch on which they live. But this is a foolish and blind wish. Diversity is not an abnormality but the very reality of our planet. The human world manifests the same reality and will not seek our permission to celebrate itself in the magnificence of its endless varieties. Civility is a sensible attribute in this kind of world we have; narrowness of heart and mind is not."
--Chinua Achebe, Bates College Commencement Address (May 27th, 1996)


 
  


Far Away from Home:

Postcolonial perspectives from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia

Our focus in this course will be on diverse places and cultures in both literature and film. The literature of countries once former colonies of European powers like Britain, France and Spain is an engaging and expanding field of study. This course introduces students to the complex issues surrounding identity, race, gender, language and power  in perspectives from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.  Discussions will focus on not only historical situations, but also the conventions used to express the unique stories we'll explore. The course will end with an exploration of globalization's effects on and implications for contemporary literature.

Depending on class interest, writers might include some of the following: J.M. Coetzee (South Africa), Jamaica Kincaid (Antingua), V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad), Salman Rushdie (Pakistan), Isabel Allende (Chile), Abdulrazak Gurnah (Tanzania), Nawal el Saadawi (Egypt), Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic),   Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan), Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), Octavio Paz (Mexico), Lilian Lee (Hong Kong) and Suketu Mehta (India).

Films examined might include The Constant Gardener (Fernando Mereilles), Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair), My Son the Fanatic (Hanif Kureishi), Life and Debt (Stephanie Black), and Lost in Translation (Sophia Coppola), and The Kite Runner (Marc Forster).