Starting from the premise that there is no such thing as a "pure" culture, we will nonetheless try to understand what it means to belong to a particular culture. Questions of identity are frequently at the heart of good literature, and the group of works which has been classified as "postcolonial" is no exception. As we read a selection of works from the colonial and postcolonial worlds, we will explore the writers' and our own answers to key questions of identity. What does it mean to "belong" to a culture, nation, ethnicity, community or family? What kinds of identity are possible in contexts where a colonizing power has undermined traditional affiliations? We will read short stories and novels, as well as works of theory relevant to the other course readings. This course may be taken simultaneously by undergraduates (see LIT 324). Graduate students may take it as a research seminar, subject to additional reading and research requirements, including writing a major research paper based on primary materials.
