Anti-Imperialism in the Contemporary Literary Imagination [Online]
Full Tuition: $320 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.
Instructor: Spratley | 5 Weeks | Tuesdays | January 23 - February 20 | 5:30 - 7:30 PM ET | ONLINE
Imagine a resistance organized through sign language and enacted through puppet theater, luring occupying soldiers to their deaths. Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic does just this, and joins with other writers resisting colonial domination by centering the lives and stories–and therefore the perspective and concerns–of characters fighting to preserve their culture, safety, and dignity under occupation. Taking this literature as our guide, we’ll examine our own relationships to power, empire, and resistance? Writing remains an entry point through which the individual can directly challenge, undermine, and subvert the goals of empire. Likewise, reading can be a point of connection between those living under the current or historical fist of empire and those in other parts of the world, or citizens of imperialist nations themselves. And, for the oppressed, creative expression has historically been a means to influence whose history is recorded and remembered in the absence of greater institutional, cultural, and state-sanctioned power.
Together, we will read literature that engages directly with imperialism and ask: How does literature help reflect the reality of colonization and occupation for a wider audience? How are the aims of empire internalized within the citizens of imperialist nations? How can we find perspective in the face of empire? Our reading will include work by Mohammed El-Kurd, Hafizah Geter, Jamaica Kincaid, Edwidge Danticat, and Ilya Kaminsky. We’ll supplement our readings with the work of scholars such as Partha Chatterjee and Angela Davis, as well as optional “readings” in the form of music, video, and visual art.
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Recordings may be provided upon request for missed classes.
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Scholarships: We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class. Our full scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering, limited to one per student per month. Because our scholarship funding is limited, selecting multiple full scholarships in a single month will result in disenrollment from all classes. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out please email us directly, and we will add you to a waitlist and notify you if additional scholarships become available. Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans and refund policy.
Asynchronous Auditing: Classes are discussion-based and designed to be taken synchronously. However, we do offer an asynchronous audit option for most online classes if you need to follow along at your own pace. You must choose the audit option to receive all course recordings; please do not register using a scholarship if you do not plan to attend the majority of class sessions as you will not receive the recording materials to follow along. We do not automatically offer scholarships for auditors, but if you need one, you may request one by filling out this form.