English 27 Postcolonial and Post-Imperial Literature in English Since 1980

Autobiography and Fiction in Africa, Australia, the Indian Subcontinent, and New Zealand

George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University

The class meets 1-1:50 PM, Monday, Wednesday, Friday in Horace-Mann B8 and has an occasional World Wide Web lab in 265 CIT Wed. 8:00-9:30 PM. Professor Landow's office hours (209 Horace-Mann) 2-4, M, W; 2-3 F

Weeks 1 & 2 (Wednesday, 22 January, through Friday, 31 January). Wole Soyinka's Aké: The Years of Childhood, 1981. (Nigeria). Explore the sections of the Postcolonial Web on Nigeria, Soyinka, and postcolonial theory.

Monday 20 January: brief WWW assignment due.

Week 3 (3 through 7 February) Buchi Emecheta, The Slave Girl, 1977 (Nigeria).

Week 4 (10 through 14 February) Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah, 1987. Soyinka, selected poems. (Nigeria)

[Long Weekend: 15 -- 18 February]

Week 5 (Wednesday, 19 February, through Friday, 21 February). African Woman's Writing, ed. Bruner. (Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe)

Week 6 (24 through 28 February) Ken SaroWiwa, A Forest of Flowers, 1986. (Nigeria).

Week 7 (3 through 7 March). Graham Swift, Waterland, 1983. (UK)

Week 8 (10 through 14 March). Salman Rushdie, Shame, 1983. (India and Pakistan) Midterm essays due in class, Monday, 10 March.

Week 9 (17 through 21 March). Sara Suleri, Meatless Days, 1989).(Pakistan)

[Spring Recess: 22 -- 30 March]

Week 10 (31 March through 4 April). Anita Desai, In Custody, 1984. (India)

Week 11 (7 through 11 April). Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda, 1988. (Australia)

Week 12 (14 through 18 April). Timothy Mo, Sour Sweet, 1985. (UK; born Hong Kong)

Week 13 (28 April through 2 May). Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, 1989. (UK; born Japan)

[Reading Period: 30 April -- 11 May]

Week 14 (4 through 6 May). Alan Duff, Once Were Warriors, 1990. (New Zealand [coming soon])

[Final Exam Period: 7-16 May]