Migrants, Natives, or Settlers? Asians in South African Literature

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In this course, we will consider questions of diaspora, enslavement, race, and identity from the perspective of Asians in South Africa, a country shaped by settler colonialism, enslavement, indentured labor, and apartheid, in ways both related to and different from the United States and other settler colonial states. Enslaved people in South Africa came from multiple places, including South and Southeast Asia, and after slavery's formal abolition in the British empire, the first ship of Indian indentured laborers arrived in 1860, beginning a flow of both free and unfree Asian migrants. We will study recent fiction that represents the experiences of Asians in South Africa, including Andre Brink's Philida (2012), Joanne Joseph's Children of Sugarcane (2021), and late-apartheid stories by South African Indian authors such as Deena Padayachee and Agnes Sam. As we do so, we'll ask: What literary modes are employed to represent these varied migration experiences? How does such literature converge and diverge from the genre conventions of European settler colonists' writing? How do these texts situate newly arrived Asians and their descendants relative to place, history, and belonging in South Africa? To help us think through these questions, we'll engage theoretical frameworks from diaspora studies and settler colonial studies. Brief selections from other South African literature and South African literary criticism will also help us contextualize these works. No previous exposure to South African literature is expected. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact [email protected].)