EGL 283 - Pilgrims, Flâneurs, & Pranksters: The Walk in Literature

Course Units: 1.0

While modern colonialism dating back to the 18th century brought the entire globe into contact, the nation-state remained the relevant unit of culture. Unprecedented levels of migration and technological development in the past century, however, have made it impossible to ignore the fact that we are now living in a thoroughly transnational world-a new world order whose contours we yet barely grasp. How do social identity formations shift when nation-state boundaries are challenged? What sorts of new ethical dilemmas and self-other relations are engendered? Is anti-colonialism, staged as it was in the theater of national liberation, de-fanged or enabled by transnationalism? What new aesthetic forms and modes are generated by transnationalism; and how do cosmopolitans, exiles, diasporics, hybrids, and long-distance nationalists affect the field of culture? These are among the questions we will examine over the course of the term through the complementary lenses of film, literature, and theory. Prerequisite(s): EGL 100 or EGL 101 or EGL 102 or a grade of 5 on the AP English Literature or Language test. CC: HUL, HUM, WAC