21L.007 World Literatures: Contact Zone, Fall 2006

Abstract

World Literatures will focus on the concept of the contact zone. What happens when cultures with different ideologies and norms come into contact with each other through exploration and colonization? We will examine how the complex issues surrounding race, gender, language and power are represented in both poetry and prose from African, Caribbean and South Asian perspectives. Our discussions will focus on not only the historical situations that these texts represent, but also the literary conventions these writers use to express these unique stories.