Postcolonial Diaspora and Exile Literature
This course will explore postcolonial narratives of migration and the themes that emerge from them: journeys abroad, meanings of exile, transnational identities, and return to the homeland. Migrant narratives often center around what we call the “contact zone”: what happens when cultures with different norms come into contact with each other through migration and sometimes colonization? Insofar as the texts reflect the various borders the authors crossed in bringing them to life—as they come from various parts of the Middle East and Africa via the US and UK—they capture the traveling identities that we will explore. Other themes that will emerge in relation to postcolonial migration narratives will include nostalgia, traditionalism, modernity, and cosmopolitanism.
Nahrain Al-Mousawi 