F0412 Salman Rushdie: The Dilemmas of Globalization

This course explores the cultural dimension of globalization using postcolonial literature as its compass. We will investigate how postcolonial literature has been mapping the epoch-making changes of the last decades, and how it has simultaneously been affected by them.
Topics broached will include the internationalization of literature, postcolonialism and neocolonialism, the interferences between highbrow and mass culture, the role of English as a hegemonic language, the tension between religion and secularism, the impact of marketing on contemporary fiction, postmodern ethnicity, the global city. Though we will be using some sociological and theoretical instruments, literature will be our main guide (with music occasionally playing an important role). The core of the course will consist of a close and collaborative reading of two novels by Salman Rushdie. The Satanic Verses created an international scandal in 1989 and caused the author to be sentenced to death by the Iranian regime. The political affair ended up overshadowing the great literary scope of the novel, which provides an opportunity to analyze the role of religious discourse in postmodernity. The Ground Beneath Her Feet, written ten years later, narrates the ascent of an Indian singer to international stardom. This narrative illuminates the controversial impact of pop music in the global era: vehicle of transnational dialogue for the young or spearhead of Western consumerism?
Classes will be based on lectures and discussion of assigned readings.