World Literature in English
Term 1
TTh, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Monuments and memorials mark heroic turning points in the life of a nation, state or people and claim to be the final word in social struggle. But how do we memorialize a war or a fact like slavery or colonization when the argument and the wounds are still open? Architecture and museums are called upon more than other forms to draw such periods of trouble to a close, yet memorialisation can take many forms: statues, installations, museums, exhibitions, film or literary works. We will read literary accounts that register the trouble with memory alongside interesting cases of politically charged memorials. To approach this question we will look at 4 cases: South Africa after apartheid, USA after Vietnam, Algeria after revolution and Lebanon after civil war. Works by Annie Coombes, Yvette Christiansen, Lauren Berlant, Assia Djebar and Rachid Daif along with short essays in architecture and urban studies.
