Transatlantic Literatures

Catalog description

This course will investigate notable literary exchanges in the literatures of the Atlantic Rim, long linked by trade (including slavery) as well as by commerce of many other kinds. Examples of these exchanges include Great Britain and the U.S., the U.S. and the Caribbean, and very importantly, between African cultures on the Atlantic and Atlantic cultures in the U.S. The course will explore the literary and cultural hybridity brought about by these exchanges. Representative writers: William Shakespeare and Aimee Cesaire, Joseph Conrad and Chinua Achebe; Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys; William Faulkner and Edouard Glissant.