ENGL 5921 Migration Politics and the Family

This course engages with 20th and 21st century literary representations of migration to explore how immigrant literatures breakdown the separation of the private and public spheres and assert the family as a site of political formation and struggle.

Through reading a variety of genres and forms, including novels, short fiction, drama, film, and poetry, we will explore the ways that a diverse array of writers represent the reformation of familial dynamics in diaspora, a reformation that is meaningfully shaped by a variety of political and social forces both within the ancestral homeland and in the site of settlement. We also read theoretical and critical texts that address these dynamics. 

Texts

Chariandy, David. Soucouyant
Lee, Chang Rae. Native Speaker
Marshall, Paule. Brown Girl, Brownstones
Smith, Zadie. White Teeth