Literature and the Historical Event

Catalog description

How do historical events manifest themselves in literary works? Can literature offer an alternative way of remembering the past? What are the boundaries between history-writing and literary representations? Can literature allow a more nuanced and rich attachment to the past, and subsequently a different horizon for the future? This course will examine twentieth- and twenty-first century works of fiction, memoir, and historiography on the question of literature and representations of the past, considering thematic as well as theoretical aspects. Our focus will be the interplay between literature and history, with special attention to historical events and their various literary depictions, at times reading a literary work focused on an event alongside an historical account of that event. Four contexts - the Holocaust, the African American experience, postcolonialism, and the conflict in Israel-Palestine - will serve as cases in point. Readings will include selections from Hayden White, Reinhard Koselleck, Jamaica Kincaid, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michael Rothberg, Saidiya Hartman, Tomer Gardi, Elias Khouri, Roberto Bolano, A. B. Yehoshua, Cynthia Ozick, Judith Butler, Hartmut Rosa, Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Nicole Krauss, Philip Roth, and others.