Literature and Postcolonial Worlds: Perspectives from Southeast Asia

Catalog description

In the global literary canon, Southeast Asia is historically marginalized. It is the only region of the world that has not yet been awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature, despite being home to many authors who were qualified for the honor during their lifetimes. Yet twentieth- and twenty-first-century narratives from the exceptionally linguistically and historically diverse countries of Southeast Asia (e.g., Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam) present rich opportunities to understand not just the region, but also the world at large. This course approaches Southeast Asia as a critical geography for conceptualizing postcolonial thought, world literature, literary translation and influence, and the role of fiction in articulating politics and identity. The course will be thematically structured, with works by authors foundational to Southeast Asian literary traditions, like Pramoedya Ananta Toer, as well as award-winning, contemporary voices like Gina Apostol and Eka Kurniawan, placed in dialogue with film and multimedia narrative art from the region. While we will engage these materials with attention to local historical and political context, we will also explore authors' perspectives on other world literary figures and traditions, with reference to writers such as Maxim Gorky and Gabriel García Márquez. Over the course of the quarter, students will experiment with textual analysis and pursue an open-ended final assignment, with the option of extending concepts from our seminar to another country or region of their choice.