Hybridism, on Migrant Literature
My course will be about migrant literature in the post-colonial period. The focus will be on authors who express themselves in a non-native language, writers such as Joseph Conrad, Vladimir Nabokov, Eva Hoffman, Ha Jin, Aleksandar Hemon. I also use my own case, since I am a writer who came from the East, experienced cultural uprooting and immigration, and who, finally, has adopted a second language, English, in which to write.
Through this course we will explore questions such as: After Exile and Migration, how does a writer continue to survive with intellectual and emotional integrity? Is it artistically viable for the writer to retain her/his original cultural identity, working in their native language in a foreign land? Or can the writer construct a language hybrid, as a new positive force, creating thereby a literary country of their own? The fact that English is currently the lingua franca, and countries such as the USA, Britain, Australia and Canada are still major immigration destinations, how can non-native English speakers and writers claim English as their own literary vehicle? Do colonial histories provide the soil for language experimentations?
During my teaching we will study several major contemporary bilingual authors and find out the characteristic nature of their expression, and we will explore the double consciousness and hybridism in these writers’ works.
The seminar will be conducted in English.
Xiaolu Guo ist eine zweisprachige Autorin und Filmemacherin. Geboren 1973 im Süden Chinas, lebt Guo heute in England. Sie studierte an der Pekinger Filmakademie und an der National Film and TV School London. Ihr Werk She, a Chinese wurde 2009 mit dem Goldenen Leoparden beim Internationalen Filmfestival Locarno ausgezeichnet. 2005 veröffentlichte sie ihren ersten von insgesamt sieben Romanen, Stadt der Steine. Guos Werke erschienen in 27 Sprachen.
