COML 4580 - [Studies in Contemporary World Fiction]

(CA-AS)

The course explores the relationship between space, place, and subjectivity through texts whose motivation and premise explicitly involve dislocation rather than emplacement. Readings are drawn from multiple contexts and periods, with emphasis on those that question established cartographic notions of east and west, north and south. These texts, individually and in a comparative framework, will provide opportunities for critiquing not only spatial concepts such as home and the world, inclusion and exclusion, center and periphery, but also temporal labels such as pre-/ early-/post-colonial, -modern, or -national. Discussions will be framed by theoretical readings from Foucault, Said, Anderson, Pratt, and Bhabha among others.