World Literatures in English

This course explores the literatures from and circulating through the modern world system. It introduces students to the concept of 'world literature', traces its historical development, and investigates its contemporary permutations. In doing so, it shows how the world literary field has been shaped by, among others, translation activities, the emergence of a global single market; the rise of the internet; the world book trade; and intensifying globalization and commercialization of culture and literature. While these forces may appear to unify the global literary field, many theorists of world literature have pointed out the unequal and uneven flows of literature as globalized culture across the world. Throughout this course you will engage with twentieth and twenty-first century Anglophone literary texts, which will be studied from the perspective of theories of world literature.