Harshana Rambukwella

Nation and nationalism were dominant concerns in global scholarship from the 80's to 90's. But they have receded from academic conversations in the 2000s as 'post-national' thinking became dominant. However, the world over there has been a resurgence of nationalist movements. In light of these changing global dynamics, we interrogate how the nation is 'narrated'. Nations are ontological fictions but are also 'real' in a very significant sense - people literally die and kill for them. In this course we explore the duality of the nation through the notion of narration. Narratives 'construct' nations (or imagine them into being) and nations are also 'represented' in narratives because they are seen as 'real' objects. We will explore the literary, aesthetic and political implications of the ways in which nation and narration are intertwined in a range of texts spanning diverse cultures, historical periods, genres and styles. In doing so we will ask how has nation and nationalism been theorized? What are the relationships between decolonization, nationalism and postcolonialism? How do minorities and migration shape nations? We will conclude with reflections on thinking 'beyond' the nation.

The question of the ‘Other’ is one of the most intractable social, philosophical and political questions of contemporary existence. The ‘Other’ can take multiple forms: ethnic, racial, sexual, national, class and the list is potentially endless. We encounter otherness on a daily basis and given the highly mobile world we inhabit Otherness also often becomes a source of conflict. This course asks a set of interrelated questions about how we encounter otherness from a specifically postcolonial lens – particularly in terms of how otherness is represented. Some of the questions it raises are: What was the nature of Otherness in the colonial encounter and what are its postcolonial implications? What are the politics of attempting to comprehend the Other? Is the Other constructed or is it real? Why has Otherness been important for a sense of self, particularly in colonial discourses? But also how does such notions of Otherness continue to shape identities in the postcolonial world and the Global South? How are academic disciplines and epistemologies implicated in producing the Other? The course takes as it point of departure anglophone writing from different historical and geographical contexts to critically explore how writers using English as their primary medium of expression have grappled with representing 'otherness'. We will read texts such as Leonard Woolf's Village in the Jungle set in colonial Sri Lanka, George Orwell's Burmese Days set in colonial Burma (or what is now Myanmar) and Paul Theroux's Kowloon Tong set in Hong Kong to respond to a set of questions that arise when Otherness is produced under contexts of extreme inequality, such as colonialism.

The central question animating this course is how writing shapes the world. Throughout history, writing has had an ambiguous status. For instance, in Plato’s Republic - an iconic philosophical treatise in western thought - he wishes to banish poets. Plato felt writers were dangerous - that they could misrepresent 'reality' and be politically and socially destabilizing. Writing, therefore, has historically been a site of tension, with those in power fascinated by its potential but also wary of its subversiveness. These tensions that characterize writing - a productive tool but at the same time a potentially destabilizing force - has meant that writers throughout history and from vastly differing contexts have reflected on the act of writing. In this course we will explore how writing is put to different uses and the power of the written word to mold reality. We will ask a series of interrelated questions: Are aesthetic choices also political? Is there a politics to the languages we chose? What can we infer from the context within which writing takes place? Is there a politics to literary-form? Can writing perpetuate existing inequalities, and if so, can it just as well ameliorate them?

This course is an introduction to questions that are central to both literary scholarship and creative writing. The course will foster an understanding not only of theoretical and methodological concepts, but also an understanding of practice and poetics. Through a range of readings and a variety of assignments, both analytical and practical, students will tackle issues of language, translation, interpretation, structure, and technique from methodological and practical perspectives. This course will prepare students for their capstone project and it is strongly suggested, although not required, that students take the course in their junior year.

Prerequisite: LITCW-UH 1001 or LITCW-UH 1002