Description: Seminar, four hours. Exploration of theoretical evolution of postcolonial and transnational studies through predominantly American multiethnic short story. How do our primary works in contemporary short fiction question literary conventions of allegedly mainstream, white Euro-American literature? What manifestations of empire, diasporic mobility, and generic mutability unite or separate our primary creative works? What meditations on identity do our fiction and creative non-fiction works offer as they intersect notions of race, class, caste, gender, ethnicity, nationality, and/or sexuality? What aesthetic or critical possibilities does the short story open up for future of postcolonial, diaspora, ethnic, and area studies? Could the muliethnic short story be the socio-politically subversive narrative genre par excellence? Close reading of short stories in comparative light with creative non-fiction and hybrid narrative forms in works by Aimé Céaire, Amitava Kumar, Jhumpa Lahiri, ZZ Packer, Roxane Gay, and Claire Vaye Watkins. P/NP or letter grading.

Units: 0.0