ENGL 787, English Major Seminar: Contact Zones

This course considers how individual and cultural identities are shaped in a world where people are on the move, literally and metaphorically, voluntarily and involuntarily. When borders are crossed and histories are remade, what is lost and what is gained? As Mohsin Hamid observes, “To a certain extent we are all refugees, at least in an emotional sense. Migration is the fundamental nature of what it is to be a human being. A human being is somebody with a particular genetic configuration: yes. But a human being is also someone who migrates through time.”

Through fiction, drama, poetry and film, we’ll explore the myriad ways in which we experience ourselves, and one another, as we develop new understandings of family, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, class, and nationality. Writers will include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jericho Brown, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Mohsin Hamid, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Lynn Nottage, Tommy Orange, Diane Seuss, and Jesmyn Ward, among others.  Supplemental readings will provide frameworks for talking about a range of critical issues. 

English 787, English Major Seminar: Contact Zones is a Writing Intensive course that fulfills part of the Capstone requirement (as well as the “Poetics” requirement) for the Literary Studies option within the Literary Arts & Studies / English Studies major. At UNH Manchester, it also fulfills the diversity requirement for the B.A. in English Teaching.  Prerequisite: English 419, or instructor’s permission.

Although the course is titled “English Major Seminar,” students from other majors are very welcome and may find the subject matter of interest (please note the “instructor’s permission” option).

English 787 may be repeated for credit, up to a maximum of 8 credits, provided that content is not significantly duplicated.