An examination of various aspects of the modern literature written in English in Africa, the Caribbean, India, and Southeast Asia. Topics will vary from semester to semester. Students should consult the department's "Announcement of Classes" for current offerings well before the start of the semester.

This course will explore a central question: Is contemporary African literature an ongoing queer drama? Students will become familiar with recent debates in African literature and African Queer Studies about where and how “queerness” resides in the genre. We will pay attention to the dynamic approaches that scholars have taken to the meaning of queer drama in its various iterations including the existential drama of colonial intrusion, the kinship drama of literary genealogies, the public drama of celebrity, and the intermedial drama of plural selves. In addition, the course will consider these scholarly debates alongside the works of writers such as Dambudzo Marechera, Fatima Daas, Zahra Patterson, Akwaeke Emezi, and Binyavanga Wainana. We will explore how these writers contribute to scholarly debates or model new theories altogether that reshape our understanding of literature and queerness.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills