AAAS 65.65 Silence, Exile, and Cunning: Comparing Jewish and African Diasporic Literatures

The diasporic subject is by definition a dislocated subject. This dislocation manifests itself not only with respect to space, but also in relationship to history, language, political power, and above all in the psychological relationship that diasporic subjects maintain with themselves. This course will focus on two primary examples of diaspora in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Jews and Africans, to examine the multiplicity of relationships among language, literary structure, as well as gender and sexuality that inform the construction of diasporic literatures. Although this course cannot be comprehensive in its survey of either Jewish or African literatures, it will offer suggestive juxtapositions of the two to emphasize commonalities between their historical and political experience. It will also explore how the once exceptional condition of diaspora increasingly has become representative for more and more people in the world today.

Instructor

Caplan

Cross Listed Courses

COLT 51.05 JWST 15.01 MES 16.39

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:NW

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.