We will read 5 recently published memoirs together this term in order to investigate several questions: what exactly is this genre of memoir? What is at stake when one ‘writes ones life’ this way, for both the writer and reader? The range of texts we will read encourage conversation on issues of eviction, leaving, notions of home and homeland, belonging, returning, journey, community and memory. We will discuss how these ideas speak to and help define ‘the postcolonial’ as a theory of learning about the world, and additionally, analyze race, gender, feminism, queerness, class, and other axes of identity that speak to power and privilege. The texts for this course travel through various parts of the globe (Jamaica, England, Laos, Ghana, US, Egypt, and Palestine) and will help us think about the connections between the particular and universal.

The Other Side of Paradise—Staceyann Chin
The Latehomecomers—Kao Kalia Yang
Out of Place—Edward Said
Lose Your Mother—Saidiya Hartman
A Border Passage from Cairo to America—Leila Ahmed