Overview of Course

By reading far and writing wide, we better understand ourselves. This section of Contemporary
Global Fiction will focus on country-based readings for the SAS Spring ‘24 Voyage,
incorporating novels and short fiction from all eleven ports of call. It does not presume that
students will arrive with any expertise in international literature, but that they are ready and
willing to investigate themes of immigration, exile, and identity. By focusing on an array of
award-winning writing through a modern lens (Pulitzer, Man Booker, and Caine Prize winners,
to name a few), students will not only improve upon their critical skills, but their creative ones as
well, learning how to better evaluate and craft their own fiction. This diverse selection of authors
will also enable cross-genre interactions between literary and fantastical, historical and
experimental literature over the past seventy-five years. In doing so, students will familiarize
themselves with the narrative worlds which they will physically encounter, providing an
opportunity to relate to ongoing issues that exist across the modern world.