In this class we will discuss novels and films from different parts of the world that respond directly to political upheaval in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These texts examine how individual and collective identities are shaped in new ways by the impact of modern colonialism, the legacy of decolonization, and the promises of “globalization”. Some of the writers we will study: Multatuli, Jose Rizal, C.L.R. James, Chinua Achebe, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Bessie Head, Amitav Ghosh, Jamaica Kincaid, Ousmane Sembene, Hou Hsiao Hsien.