Background and Rationale

Exile has been interpreted as an archetypal human experience and a metaphor for artistic creation. This course examines the concept of exile and its various mythological, cultural, historical and psychological parameters, as represented in narratives drawn from twentieth-century English, French, American and Indian, Arab literature. Selected fiction and non-fiction texts (novels, short stories, essays) will be contextualized within a broad thematic repertoire, including estrangement, memory, nostalgia, homeland, adopted country, diaspora, eternal return, translingualism, identity, cosmopolitanism, globalization, transnationalism, and inter-cultural communication.

Learning Outcomes

After completion of the course students are expected to be able to:
• recognise and describe the cultural practices of diaspora and exile communities as interdisciplinary and cross-cultural phenomena
• evaluate the political, historical, social and artistic factors in the cultural production of diaspora and exile communities
• practice analytical and close reading skills on cultural practices of diaspora and exile communities
• sharpen awareness of cross-disciplinary and intercultural influences between different art forms
• appreciate various formal characteristics of the cultural practices of diaspora and exile communities
• understand, assess and compare different theoretical conceptions of diaspora and exile and the cultural practices of diaspora and exile communities