Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Advanced seminar in literary works in English, mainly from regions other than Canada, Britain and the United States. The course may focus on one or several literatures or individual authors, and will be organized according to specific critical methodologies. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Historian Cedric Robinson is most often credited with introducing the term “racial capitalism” to describe the fundamentally racial nature of capitalism’s logics. What is less well-known is that the term was originally coined to describe the specific case of South African settler colonialism that was eventually codified as apartheid. The end of apartheid in 1994, however, did not end this system of exploitation; instead, South Africa remains a unique site in which new forms of capital accumulation and subjection continue to be articulated and developed.

In this course we will turn to South African literature from the late- and post-apartheid eras to investigate how the relationship between race and capitalism has evolved, and how it has been negotiated by a range of writers. How have ideas of race and forms of capital accumulation transformed alongside the country’s history? How have South African writers responded to the demands of activist writing? How has the “freedom” on offer after the end of apartheid shaped the kinds of narratives, voices, and forms produced by some of South Africa’s most prominent writers?

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: