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This course explores the intersections between colonialism, imperialism, the environment as represented in the literary, and cultural works of the Asian diaspora. The goal of this course is to 1) provide an introduction to postcolonial theory and ecocriticism, and 2) to historically situate the literature of the Asian diaspora and immigration within the larger contexts of the Anthropocene. Utilizing concepts such as Alfred Crosby and Richard Grove’s ecological imperialism, Val Plumwood’s hegemonic centricism, Rob Nixon’s slow violence, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s planetarity, we will examine ways of engaging with the literature of the Asian diaspora beyond imperial-colonial logics of androcentric and anthropocentric dualisms. Alongside our theoretical reading, we will examine Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide, Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things, Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men, Shawn Wong’s Homebase, and Han Ong The Disinherited, and Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rainforest. |
