Caribbean Cosmopolitanism

ENGL

325

Caribbean Cosmopolitanism

This course explores what it means to be “cosmopolitan” in Caribbean literature. If cosmopolitanism is, on the one hand “to see oneself through the eyes of the other,” and on the other “to uphold a universal concern for all humans above family and nation,” how does Caribbean literature answer such a challenge? Students will sharpen critical reading, thinking, and writing skills by analyzing Caribbean literature that emerges against the persistence of national and cultural myths of civilized/savage, literate/illiterate, human/animal. Students will become acquainted with a specific vocabulary produced by texts written in and about the Caribbean. Some other themes may include but are not limited to the issues of “discovery,” enslavement, exile, (im)migration, ethnic cleansing, transnationalism, literary and social revolutions.

Fall, Spring

Undergraduate

Yes

019528