ENGL 367 B1: Contemporary Literatures and Cultures

L. Harrington

The condition of migrancy is a reigning trope in literature and one that is ever more pertinent in the shadow of Donald Trump's wall, the xenophobic narrative of Brexit, and the rise of right-wing populism. In this course, we will take up contemporary debates about the condition of migrancy and refugeehood in the context of involuntary or forced migration and the displacement of people from their homes and homelands in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Pakistan, and India. We will consider questions about the right to land and to return, about repetitive trauma, about settling and dispossession, and the erasure of place. Our study will cover a range of genres including poetry, memoir, fiction and non-fiction. Some texts we will read in translation from Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu and some are originally written in English.