ENGL 23035 - American Literature As World Literature 1990-Present

In the era of globalization, mass migrations, and geopolitical upheaval, this class will examine American literature’s relationship to and in the world. Thinking about American literature as world literature will help us interrogate questions of race, sexuality, nationality, identity, multiculturalism, and dislocation. The class will examine texts primarily from first-generation and immigrant American writers, including Jhumpa Lahiri, Dinaw Mengestu, Teju Cole, and Mohsin Hamid as well as films. We will interrogate questions of what it means to be an American within and beyond the borders of the United States of America in the post Cold War and post 9/11 era. We will examine the ways in which these seeming ‘outsiders’ or writers from the margins illuminate debates at the center of American life and literature.