English

This course covers the entire Anglophone world from Canada to Trinidad and from Ireland to Australia. It focuses on three key ideas: nation, migration and globalization in post-colonial works of literature from countries that were former colonies of the British Empire. Although there are differing postcolonial literatures and histories in various parts of the world, these three categories embrace some common themes and questions that have developed in many countries following the formal end of colonial rule. These postcolonial issues include questions of race, gender, historical memory, globalization and resistance, to name a few. The selected texts - from Africa, Ireland, Asia and the Pakistani diaspora in the UK - give specific social, cultural, and historical contexts for examining these issues. In addition, these dramas and stories allow for a better understanding of some of the artistic innovations of postcolonial literary forms.

This course examines creative writing practices across a range of different literary forms. Students will be guided through the process of generating ideas, drafting, workshopping, editing and revision to produce a portfolio of creative writing.

The course reviews the main historical-cultural scenarios that have marked the development of the English language. 

This course teaches literary prose fiction for adults, but writers are also given the chance to opt for non-fiction, drama, or poetry. Neither fiction for children nor genre fiction feature in the course. This course stresses process writing, rewriting and editing as essential to the crafting and sculpting of fine sentences and paragraphs. To this end students read their prose, poetry and drama in writers’ workshops. Students explore issues of lexis, syntax, character, setting, and point of view before embarking on fully-fledged prose excursions. The instructor helps to shape and polish that prose works with students to develop their talents.

Hugh Kenner described Faulkner as "the last novelist," because in spite of his complex and challenging modernist narratives he maintained a 19th century-rooted belief in fiction’s humanist power and social relevance, and that the writer’s job is "to bring news of the world." This course is an opportunity to read and reflect on Faulkner in a sustained way, where students read and discuss Faulkner’s most significant and influential fiction and consider his iterative stylized representation of the American South.