Survey of English Studies: Postcolonialism, Diaspora, Migration in Text and Theory

This lecture course engages with three interconnected historical and material phenomena – migration, diaspora, and the postcolonial – and with the discursive formations they shape and are shaped by. These formations, and the ways in which they represent, negotiate, and contest historical experience, constitute a central concern of English Studies.

The lecture's focus is twofold: it analyses literary texts and cultural productions in the widest sense – from poem to image, from narrative to film – while also examining how these texts, and the phenomena with which they engage, are historicised and theorised.

Our main aim is not only to familiarise students with key texts, concepts, and debates, but also to encourage them to read widely and independently explore Anglophone literatures and cultures – especially those shaped by migration, diaspora, and the postcolonial. Such independent engagement cultivates essential disciplinary practices and skills – including sustained reading, critical interpretation, and intellectual judgement – whose importance has, if anything, increased with the advent of generative AI.

Underpinning this survey course, then, is the conviction that students should develop and sustain a habit of reading widely across historical periods, cultures, locations, and genres. Beyond the texts discussed in the lecture, mentioned on the slides, or included in the course bibliography, students are strongly encouraged to discover further primary and secondary literature independently, making use of both the English Seminar's library and the University and State Library (ULB).

This lecture is open to students enrolled in any BA, MA, or PhD programme offered by the English Seminar.

First session: Tuesday, 20 October 2026, 14:00–16:00
Venue: F2, Fürstenberghaus