This course is a beginning introduction to Literatures written in English from India, Kenya and Nigeria. I will start with an elementary introduction to postcolonialism and to issues such as nationalism, identity, indegeneity and hybriditiy. These issues will be backed up with readings from Chrisman and Williams' Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory—such as seminal essays by Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha and Edward Said. In this course we will focus on the most recent novels coming out of the postcolonial world. We will read two novels by Jhumpa Lahiri The Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth, Vikram Chardra's Sacred Games and other absolutely new novels. We will run the course like a book discussion group where we read brand new novels and see what lessons we can get from them about living as hybrid people in the new world or identifying with the old world.

The assignments will be easy: Two short reaction papers to any of the novels, a short reaction paper to each film and a research paper, connecting the texts we hav read to current issues. The research paper should be about 10-12 pages for undergraduates and about 18-20 pages for graduate students.