Literature in the Postcolony: Transculturality and New Comparativism

Course goals

Students will become familiar with a number of key theoretical issues pertaining to current debates in literary studies, postcolonial literature and transcultural aesthetics. They will expand their knowledge in literary analysis as well as gain insight into methodological and cross-disciplinary questions. 

Content

This course studies literature as a transcultural phenomenon that crosses and helps re-define and shift cultural borders. Students gain theoretical, historical, and methodological insights with respect to the study of the role of literature, both as it is written and read. We discuss processes of cultural transfer and translation; transcultural poetics; colonial modernity as well as the entanglement of post/decolonial and environmental critique. Students are expected to engage actively in the discussions on all these issues and then specialize in one while preparing the final assignment. The course especially focuses on Caribbean literature, which has been highly influential for post- and decolonial critique as well as emblematic for a response to colonial modernity. Over the course of the seminar students grow more closely familiar with this specific cultural and geopolitical region and Caribbean literature and cultural critique. 

Additional information

This seminar is a compulsory part of the Research MA Comparative Literary Studies and is an elective for students in the following Research master programmes: Gender Studies; Media, Art and Performance Studies; Nederlandse Literatuur en Cultuur; and Religious Studies. The course is open to exchange students at MA level in Comparative Literature and related humanities programs.

Career orientation
This course serves as preparation for a PhD program in the Humanities, as well as for non-academic careers, by offering training in the following transferable skills: conducting and planning research, critical thinking and writing, communication and presentation skills.

Early Exit option for international exchange students (5 ECTS)
 
Exchange students who are required to return to their home university before January, are allowed to choose an Early Exit option for this course. The Early Exit option means that students can finish the course before Christmas break, receiving 5 ECTS for the course. Students must make arrangements with the course coordinator at the start of the course.