HENK03912U English - Free topic 14: Where is Home: On Migration, Displacement, and the Idea of Return (exam form A,B,C)

Volume 2015/2016
Content

Home is usually associated with a specific and singular location, a grounded dwelling place that provides comfort, safety, and familiarity vis-a-vis an outside that is potentially far less stable. Within the contexts of colonial and postcolonial migrancy and displacement, however, the concept of home in unhinged from such a readymade meaning. What does home mean to those who travel, migrate or are internally displaced within their nations, what is at stake when home is under siege or located ‘elsewhere’ or in multiple locations? If home is a multidimensional and plural term, what does home mean in the context of global mobility and transcultural itineracies? If home is not grounded in a specific place, what is it then? A feeling, a practice, or a way of being in the world? And how does this all impinge on the well-known migrant dream of ‘returning home’ one day? We will discuss such questions with reference to six novels with plots that span from the colonial and postcolonial eras to the current global age and we will consult relevant critical and theoretical essays as part of our discussions.

Texts: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966); David Malouf, Babylon Revisited (1993); Amitav Ghosh, The Shadow Lines (1988); Sunjeev Sahota, Ours are the Streets (2011).; Tayie Selasi, Ghana Must Go (2013); Sefi Atta, A Bit of Difference (2012). A selection of critical and theoretical texts will be uploaded to ABSALON.

  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 28
  • Preparation
  • 176,75
  • Total
  • 204,75
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Other
Criteria for exam assesment