Globalized Identities in Literatures and Cultures in English
Summary
The course will begin with a reflection on the complex notion of globalized identities, to then delve into two ways of understanding them, always looking for illustration on literary (and occasionally cinematic and artistic) representations. In the first part of the course, globalized identities will be discussed in connection with the key concepts of migration, diaspora, and transnationalism. In the second part of the course, this perspective will be expanded to propose an exploration of global identities which incorporates a more-than-human dimension, revolving around the concepts of collaboration and care. Both parts will make special emphasis on examining the legacies of colonialism and imperialism, both as historical processes and as contemporary realities.
Course objectives:
-To understand the complexity of key notions such as Globalization, Cultural Identities, and Globalized Identities.
-To be familiar with some basic tenets of Migration and Diaspora Studies, Partnership Studies, and the Ethics of Care.
-To be able to identify and discern the categories of Colonialism, Imperialism, Postcolonialism, Decoloniality, Posthumanism and Dehumanism, among others.
-To hone the students’ abilities to analyze the ideological implications and rhetorical strategies of a variety of critical and literary texts in English from a variety of world contexts.
- To produce several analytical and critical texts in English, both in oral and written form.
What Do We Study
We shall be approaching a variety of texts from different areas of the English-speaking world, with emphasis (though not exclusively) on those originating from the great cultural mosaic of the Indian Ocean and its diasporas. We shall read short stories, novels, poetry, creative nonfiction, graphic novels, and/or essays, besides discussing the occasional movie or piece(s) of art.
Which is the Line of Thought
Theoretical postulates from a range of fields and areas will be used: Globalization Studies, Cultural and Postcolonial Studies, Decoloniality, Migration and Diaspora Studies, Posthuman Thought, Partnership Studies and the Ethics of Care. Gender perspectives will be privileged throughout.
Theoretical and Practical Approaches
Mandatory reading chapters and fragments will be shared on the virtual campus.
Aguilar Gil, Yasnaya Elena. The People of North Igra. Anti-Capitalist Resistance in the First Half of the 21st Century. InLumbung Stories. Cassava Republic, 2022.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. Talking Identity. In The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity. Liveright, 2019.
Ashcroft, Bill. Borders, Bordering, and the Transnation. English Academy Review. A Journal of English Studies 36.1 (2019): 5-19.
Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. Routledge,1994.
Brah, Avtar. Multiple Configurations of Power: Framing the Decolonial. En Decolonial Imaginings: Intersectional Conversations and Contestations. Goldsmiths Press, 2022.
Brubaker, Rogers. The ‘Diaspora’ Diaspora. Ethnic and Racial Studies 28.1 (2005): 1-19.
Chatzidakis, Andreas et al. The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence. Verso, 2020.
Cheran, Rudramoorthy. Multiple Homes and Parallel Civil Societies: Refugee Diasporas and Transnationalism. Refugee Diasporas and Transnationalism/ Introduction 23, 1 (2006).
Cohen, Robin and Carolyn Fisher, eds. Routledge Handbook of Diaspora Studies. 2019.
DeLoughrey, Elizabeth, Jill Didur and Anthony Carrigan. Introduction: A Postcolonial Environmental Humanities. In Global Ecologies and the Environmental Humanities: Postcolonial Approaches. Routledge, 2015.
Eisler, Riane and Douglas Fry. Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Figueroa-Vásquez, Yomaira C. Decolonizing Diasporas. En Decolonizing Diasporas: Radical Mappings of Afro-Atlantic Literature. Northwestern University Press, 2020.
Ghosh, Amitav. The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Penguin. 2016.
---. The Nutmeg Curse. The University of Chicago Press, 2021.
Hall, Stuart. Cultural Identity and Diaspora. In Colonial Discourse & Postcolonial Theory: A Reader, ed. Patrick Williams y Laura Chrisman. Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993.
Haraway, Donna. Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin. Environmental Humanities, 6 (2015): 159-165.
Krenak, Alton. Ideas to Postpone the End of the World. Anansi, 2020.
Perera, Suvendrini and Joseph Pugliese. Geographies of Violence: Island Prisons, Prison Islands, Black Sites. From The European South 9 (2021): 85-97
Sanyal, Mithu. WTF are the Commons? In Lumbung Stories. Cassava Republic, 2022.
Singh, Julietta. Reading Against Mastery. In Unthinking Mastery: Dehumanism and Decolonial Entanglements. Duke University Press 2018.
Steger, Manfred B. Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP, 2020.
Tronto, Joan. Who cares? How to Reshape a Democratic Politics. Cornell Selects, 2015.
Villanueva-Romero, Diana, Lorraine Kerslake and Carmen Flys-Junquera. Imaginative Ecologies: Inspiring Change through the Humanities. Brill, 2022.
Wall Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding Sweetgrass. Penguin, 2013.
---. The Democracy of Species. Penguin, 2021.