HENB0T181U Engelsk - Valgfag 2 - Emne i postkoloniale studier A: The Black Atlantic: A cultural continuum of roots and routes

Årgang 2013/2014
Engelsk titel

Elective 2: The Black Atlantic: A cultural continuum of roots and routes

Kursusindhold

In postcolonial discourse, the idea of ‘rootedness’ and the claiming of a specific ancestral place or nation as ‘home’ have been instrumental in attempts to liberate peoples and cultures from the yoke of imperialism and colonisation. However, Paul Gilroy’s seminal work The Black Atlantic: Modernity & Double-Consciousness (1993) takes its departure in the ‘ethnic absolutism’ and the stagnant and fixed definitions of cultural identity that such an approach to ‘difference’ and authenticity may evoke. In revisiting the ‘Black Atlantic’ and its triangular route of passage between continents and nations,Gilroy pursues the image of ships ‘in-between’ destinations and he points to productive and dynamic vision of belonging that is transnational, trans-ethnic and intercultural. Caribbean creative writers, both before and after the publication ofGilroy’s work, have done the same. Derek Walcott, for instance, has remarked that his roots are many and diverse and that as aCaribbean writer one must ‘triangulate one’s experience’. That is preciselyGilroy’s point: The Black Atlantic culture is neither purely African, American or British but all these at once and this culture offers refreshingly new in-between perspectives on formerly fixed perceptions of culture and identity. In this course we will pursue this dialogical relationship between the roots and routes of culture by discussing a selection ofCaribbean writing.

Holdundervisning
Den studerende vælger ét blandt de udbudte kurser inden for amerikanske studier, postkoloniale studier eller britisk litteratur, historie og samfundsforhold
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Point
7,5 ECTS
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