This course examines fictional and non-fictional writings of globally acknowledged writers connected to North America, South Asia, West and South Africa, Australia, and the Caribbean region. To interconnect these writings for studying the concept of Global Anglophone Literature is to construct a vision that transcends national borders and isolated histories, revealing a shared story of ecological disruption, colonial violence, cultural displacement, and the struggle for justice in a conflicted world. The aim is to read these works not merely as distinct stories, but more importantly as interconnected parables of a planetary condition shaped by colonialism, extractivism, and the clash of worldviews.
The discussion circles around three main aspects: 1) The Frontier of Extraction: this incorporates viewing climate crisis not as an accidental by-product of modernity, but as the direct result of a colonial worldview treating the Earth and its inhabitants as inert resources; the choice between participating in a system of violent taking and seeking a more reciprocal relationship with place and people; and the dehumanization of all cultural groups governed by imperialism; 2) Mimicry, Displacement, and Unscrupulous Systems: this explores how social structures turn public goods into transactional resources; ancient cultural traditions become shattered by modern political ideologies; and individuals struggle to discover authentic cultural, political, and ethical foundations; and 3) Reclaiming Agency: this focuses on voices and narratives that discover a cyclical sense of time and connection; the importance of embodied experience and collective memory; and the courage to question racial hierarchies that intensify individuals’ vulnerability.
We study how these works form a distinct, tragic, and yet hopeful story. While analysing the colonial frontier, where land and people are treated as resources, as well as the ideological machinery of dehumanization and control that justifies the system, we will discover how the shattered identities left in the wake of colonialism and globalization are negotiated, the recovery of subaltern stories is presented, and the urgency of egalitarianism is highlighted in the narratives. The course introduces texts from the greater Anglophone world, asking how these works not only display the forces shaping the unequal world we currently inhabit, but also offer the possibility of a more animate, relational future through negotiating the complexities of race, class, gender, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism. Finally, we address why English as a global language acts as a mediator in the debates surrounding these issues.
Students are expected to have read at least some of the fictions before the semesters starts.
Texts (students are expected to have read at least some of the fictions before the semesters starts!): Anjuli I. Gunaratne and Jeffrey Lawrence, eds. The Global Anglophone (Abingdon: Routledge, 2025); Silvia Anastasijevic, Magdalena Pfalzgraf and Hanna Teichler, eds. The Many Worlds of Anglophone Literature: Transcultural Engagements, Global Frictions (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024); Rosemary Salomone, The Rise of English: Global Politics and the Power of Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022); Richard Begam and Michael Valdez Moses, eds. Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism: Anglophone Literature, 1950 to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018); Aamir R. Mufti, Forget English! Orientalisms and World Literatures (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018); Alexander Beecroft, An Ecology of World literature: From Antiquity to the Present Day (London: Verso, 2015); Amitav Ghosh, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2021); Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013); Kate Grenville, The Secret River (Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2006); Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (London: Fourth Estate, 2004); Michael Ondaatje, Anil’s Ghost (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000); J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians (London: Secker & Warburg, 1980); V.S. Naipaul, The Mimic Men (London: Andre Deutsch, 1967), and Chinua Achebe, No Longer at Ease (London: Heinemann, 1960).
Length of term paper: 8-12 pages
Requirements for course credit: Each student will be expected to read the selected texts, and reflect on the questions shared with them prior to the seminar. Students have to work as a group for their team presentation (10 minutes) during mid-course.
Deadline for term papers: 25 March 2027
