ENGL 252 - Asian Literature in English

1 unit(s)

(Same as ASIA 252) This course introduces students to the literary history of Asian novels and short stories written in English. While Asian Anglophone literature rose to prominence in the latter half of the 20th century, in the wake of myriad national independence movements in Asia, its development is inextricable from 19th-century British and American colonial histories. Beginning here, we first examine the literary implications of British colonialism in the Indian subcontinent, Hong Kong, and the Malay peninsula, and American imperialism in the Philippine archipelago. We consider how the novel genre—a form first arising in Western Europe several centuries earlier—has been reconfigured by preexisting regional literary traditions in Asia. Turning to the post-independence era, we engage the literary debates surrounding national allegory, writing in English versus Asian vernaculars, cultural hybridity, the sociolinguistic articulation of “Global Englishes,” and contemporary Asian globalization. While the majority of this course’s authors come from nations with long histories of English-language writing, such as India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia, the expanded circulation of Asian literature in English within the contemporary world-literary marketplace means that we also engage writing from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and elsewhere. Throughout this course, we reflect on how the porous boundaries of Asian literature in English complicate other literary archives and interpretative frameworks linked to postcolonial studies, world literature, transpacific studies, and Asian American literature. Texts may include Tash Aw’s We, the Survivors, Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke, Gina Apostol’s Insurrecto, Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day, Llyod Fernando’s Scorpion Orchid, Sonny Liew’s The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, Pitchaya Sudbanthad’s Bangkok Wakes to Rain, Glenn Diaz’s The Quiet Ones, Hoa Pham’s The Other Shore, Ninotchka Rosca’s State of War, Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, and Hwee Hwee Tan’s Mammon Inc.

Two 75-minute periods.

Not offered in 2026/27.

Course Format: CLS