Experiments in Asian and Asian Diaspora Literature and Culture

Catalog description

This course introduces students to textual, visual, and filmic experiments by Asian and Asian diaspora writers and artists. Instead of reading memoirs and realist novels, we will consider how these artists explore forms like short stories, performance, graphic novels, and films, as well as genres like science fiction, horror, mystery, and romance. This course’s focus on speculative and unsettling forms of storytelling will expand our understanding of Asian and Asian diaspora artistry and recast themes of immigration, alienation, belonging, grief, memory, and identity. “What if?” is an important question these storytellers ask; “What if" is a type of creativity we will investigate by close reading these recent experiments at the limits of storytelling. Texts include short and feature-length films and fiction by Haruki Murakami, Karen Tei Yamashita, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ling Ma, and Charles Yu. No prerequisites.