Some of us no doubt believe, along with Simone Weil, that "to be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul." Others might concur with Salman Rushdie, who says he sometimes suspects that "Roots...are a conservative myth designed to keep us in our places."

Is it true that the real question now is one of intercultural identity, not so much "where are you from" as "where are you between"? This has become a major question in modern literary culture, in part because of the explosion of writing in English in countries that were once colonies of Great Britain.

This course focuses in particular on a number of vibrant literary works by contemporary writers from Ireland, the Caribbean, and the Indian subcontinent. We will explore the notions of home and identity expressed and examined in these works. How do these writers interrogate conventional notions of home and country, of individual and national identity? How do they depict the violent and complex legacy of colonialism? How are distinctions between community 'insiders' and 'outsiders' maintained, subverted, or crossed in these works, and to what ends? These are some of the questions we will bring to these texts.

Works studied will include fiction, autobiographies, poems, and essays. The course should especially interest students who want to widen their reading of contemporary literature and who are interested in a variety of world cultures.

Seamus Heaney, Opened Ground and "The Frontier of Writing"

Eavan Boland, Object Lessons and Selected Poems

Seamus Deane, Reading in the Dark

Mary Beckett, "A Belfast Woman"

William Trevor, "Beyond the Pale"

John MacGahern, "Korea"

Salman Rushdie, Excerpts from Imaginary Homelands + "Summer of Solanka" ( from Fury)

V.S. Naipaul, "One Out of Many," "Reading and Writing," and "The Writer in India"

Saadat Hasan Manto, "Toba Tek Singh"

Anita Desai, The Clear Light of Day

Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

Michael Ondaatje, Running in the Family

Derek Walcott, Collected Poems

Louise Bennett, Selected Poems

Jean 'Binta' Breeze, Selected Poems

Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John, A Small Place, and "On Seeing England for the First Time"

Michelle Cliff, "If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire"

(Xerox packet of additional poems, stories, and essays available in Printing Office)
(Historical, biographical, and critical materials - xeroxes to be distributed in class)

In order to meet the objectives for the required 'introductory' course for English and English/Creative Writing majors, a course must stress close reading, explore interpretive strategies, and engage students in literary research. The requirements for this course reflect those objectives.

You will be expected to keep an ongoing portfolio of commentaries on the readings. These brief commentaries (1-2 typed pages) are due at the beginning of each session and should focus on that session's assigned reading(s). Late commentaries will not be accepted. Your portfolio will consist of all of your commentaries on the readings. It is due at the end of the term. By that time, all commentaries must be in typed form. Only the completed portfolio, not individual commentaries, will be graded.

Directions for commentaries: choose a passage, a scene, an image or set of images, or some other specific aspect of the work (or works) that you find especially remarkable, odd, enigmatic, or confusing. Write up the thoughts and questions about the text(s) that this passage, scene, or image raises in your mind. Commentaries may be read aloud in class, so be as clear and coherent as possible.

A short paper (5-7 pages) is required. If you wish, you may use one or more of your commentaries as the basis for this paper.

A special project involving literary research is also required. In most cases, this project will take the form of a research paper and will be 8-10 pages in length. We will talk more about this assignment in class.

In keeping with College policy, you are expected to attend all of our class sessions.

You are expected to prepare the readings for each session and to contribute regularly to class discussions. Active participation includes introducing ideas, raising questions, and building upon or helping to clarify the responses of others. If, for whatever reason, you find it difficult to speak up in class, please come and talk with me as soon as possible. (Don't put it off!)

In our discussions, we will also at times consider the readings from different critical perspectives (for example, feminist, gender or queer studies, psychoanalytic, 'materialist'). These perspectives, however controversial, often afford surprising interpretive possibilities that can enrich our reading. Since they are also widely employed by contemporary theorists and scholars in the humanities and social sciences, learning more about them will make you more conversant with the larger critical discourse of our times.

Majors who are fulfilling their senior exercise requirement with this course will give presentations based on their work in an appropriate class session, if possible. Otherwise, the presentation will be scheduled outside of class and the other students in the class will be invited to attend. Majors who are fulfilling their senior exercise requirement with this course will receive an additional hour of credit. While their senior exercise will substitute for the special project, they will be expected to do the commentaries on the readings, to develop one or more of them into a five-page paper, and to submit portfolios at the end of the term.

August

23 Introduction

28 Seamus Heaney, Opened Ground
30 Heaney (cont.)

September

4 Heaney (cont.)
6 Heaney, "The Frontier of Writing"(essay - xerox)/ Eavan Boland, Object Lessons

11 Boland, Object Lessons; Selected Poems (xerox)
13 Boland (cont.)

18 Boland (cont.) / Seamus Deane, Reading in the Dark
20 Deane (cont.)

25 Deane (cont.)
27 No class
[Reading Days: September 27-28]

October

2 Mary Beckett, "A Belfast Woman," William Trevor, "Beyond the Pale," and John MacGahern, "Korea" (xerox)
4 Salman Rushdie, Excerpts from Imaginary Homelands + "Summer of Solanka" (an excerpt from his novel, Fury)

9 Rushdie (cont.) + V.S. Naipaul, "One Out of Many," "Reading and Writing," and "The Writer in India"
11 Naipaul (cont.)
[Noon, Friday, October 12 - Short Paper Due]

16 Saadat Hasan Manto, "Toba Tek Singh" / Anita Desai, The Clear Light of Day
18 Desai (cont.)

23 Desai (cont.)
25 Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
[Noon, Friday, October 26 - Special Project Proposal Due]

30 Roy (cont.)

November

[12 Outline and Tentative "Works Cited" for Special Project due]
13 Ondaatje (cont.)/ Derek Walcott, Collected Poems
15 Walcott (cont.)
[Thanksgiving Break - 5:30 p.m., Friday, November 16-25]

27 Walcott (cont.)/ Selected Poems by Louise Bennett and Jean 'Binta' Breeze
29 Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John
[Noon, Friday, November 30 - Special Projects Due]

December

4 Kincaid, Annie John (cont.); "On Seeing England for the First Time"
6 Kincaid,; A Small Place (excerpts); Michelle Cliff, "If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire" - Conclusions and Evaluations/ Portfolio Due

[December 8 (Sat.) = Reading Day
December 9-14 (Sun.-Fri.) = Examinations]