Sections offered Spring 2021:
#30985 |
GARETH EVANS |
TR 11:30a-12:45p |
WEB |
CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd A&H credit; COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit
Above class meets 100% Online through Synchronous instruction. For more information visit https://fall2020.iu.edu/learning-modes/
By “Global American Fiction,” I mean fiction written by authors who were not born in America, but who wrote their fiction while they lived in America. None of the novels we will read are set only in America, while the novel by Li is set wholly in China. Hamid no longer lives in the United States, Adichie lives in the United States for six months a year, Hagedorn was born in the Philippines and moved to the United States in her early teens, while Danticat spends considerable amounts of time in Haiti. That said, American born novelists have long written fiction set in other countries, and immigrant fiction also has a lengthy history in the United States. The American fiction we will read is different from such fiction, however, because it does not obviously fit into a single national tradition. It raises questions, then, about how one should define the American novel, while also inviting us to look at the impact of globalization on world literature, and at the relationship, literary and political, between the United States and the home countries—China, Ghana, Haiti, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines—of the authors we will read. Writers circulate, it is clear, but how does the literature we will read circulate? Given the history of dictatorship in a number of the countries I listed, and given the role America has sometimes played in such countries, the novels we read necessarily raise questions about human rights. Every novel we read was written in English, and all the authors we read were at least partially educated in America. We will also look, then, at whether such facts mean that English is now a global language. All the previous questions lead to one culminating question: How does one read the global American novel?
Reading
Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah.
Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker.
Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing.
Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters.
Yiyun Li, The Vagrants.
Manfred B. Steger, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. 4th Edition.
NOTE: Please buy physical copies of the books.
Writing Requirements and Grades
- A presentation about your family’s experience of immigration. Talk to the family member or members who know most about your family’s history. 10% of your final grade.
- Answer questions about the relationship between America and the country in which the author of each book was born. There will be assignments for each book. Every student will complete three such assignments. 20% of your final grade. Graded by the students in the class.
- Either two essays of at least 1500 words, or one essay of at least 3000 words. 40% of your final grade.
- On six occasions during the semester, you will post responses on the Course Blog.Three of your responses will comment on a book we are reading, while the other three will respond to a comment made by other students in the class