English - Free topic D: Literature as World Making Activity

In this course we will study Anglophone world literature as an example of a world-making activity. Taking a point of departure in theoretical reflections on the differences between world and globe, and between cosmopolitanism and globalisation, the course explores how literature can help us manoeuvre in complex, interdependent and turbulent times. We will discuss representations of friendship, (extended) family, cosmopolitan imaginaries, exilic belonging and ethical demands as concrete examples of world-making activities. Scholars such as Hannah Arendt, Jacques Derrida and Pheng Cheah will guide our reading of a selection of novels.