How do we critically approach cultures different from our own? In this class, we will read a selection of literature from Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia, and look at some of the major approaches that have emerged to analyze world literature in English, including reading the work in terms of politics, postmodern theory, human rights , and how these texts are marketed. In the process, we will ask who “we” are doing the approaching, what sorts of assumptions we bring to our encounter with literature from other parts of the world, and to what extent reading Anglophone literature by writers from outside of the U.S. and England requires specific critical strategies.
