Nation and Narration

Catalog description

Nation and nationalism were dominant concerns in global scholarship from the 80's to 90's. But they have receded from academic conversations in the 2000s as 'post-national' thinking became dominant. However, the world over there has been a resurgence of nationalist movements. In light of these changing global dynamics, we interrogate how the nation is 'narrated'. Nations are ontological fictions but are also 'real' in a very significant sense - people literally die and kill for them. In this course we explore the duality of the nation through the notion of narration. Narratives 'construct' nations (or imagine them into being) and nations are also 'represented' in narratives because they are seen as 'real' objects. We will explore the literary, aesthetic and political implications of the ways in which nation and narration are intertwined in a range of texts spanning diverse cultures, historical periods, genres and styles. In doing so we will ask how has nation and nationalism been theorized? What are the relationships between decolonization, nationalism and postcolonialism? How do minorities and migration shape nations? We will conclude with reflections on thinking 'beyond' the nation.