There are no pre-requisites for this module to be added

Migration, Decolonisation and Literature explores how critical methodologies have been deployed to interpret literatures of and about Migration while developing a critical self-reflective approach to conducting your own research. This module will introduce you to key concepts of studying the representation of migration in literature and understanding it as a current socio-political crisis. The module comprises short stories, novels, poetry, graphic novels, films and city walks across varied geopolitical contexts, allowing you to study the legacies of human movement in the worldview of the global north as well as postcolonial nation states that adopted and adapted to the English literary, philosophical and cultural standards. You will engage with the intersections between representations of border-crossing, plants and migration, resource extraction, displacement, racism and xenophobia, gender and class struggle, and climate crisis in a global capitalist context. Though theoretically and methodologically grounded in literary and cultural studies, the module will introduce you to key conceptual and methodological processes from other disciplines, such as disaster tourism, autoethnography, and historiography, as contextual parameters. You will be able to apply classroom learning about migration and cultural heritage to real-life settings, through a curated walk in Edinburgh city. The module will allow you to critically evaluate creative expressions and representations of migration through a decolonial pedagogy that will involve identifying, developing, and evaluating your own research methodology and critical positionality.

Upon completion of this module you will be able to

LO1: Demonstrate a critical understanding of 20th century literatures of migration within the context of postcolonial theory and current debates on decolonisation.

LO2: Critically evaluate the uses and impact of selected research methodologies, knowledge creation and dissemination processes.

LO3: Develop the ability to identify and use texts, critical resources and methodological approaches from the cultural sector, policy and art to support textual understanding and analysis.

LO4: Critically analyse texts and secondary material in underrepresented areas in current migration studies.

LO5: Construct and sustain reasoned and coherent arguments about literary aesthetics and representations of migration in reference to policy, research, and communal values.