Tragedy and Urban Life in the Long Twentieth Century: Transnational Perspectives

This seminar explores the work of postcolonial scholar and critic Ato Quayson, who will deliver the Katz Distinguished Lecture on April 6, 2022. The seminar focuses on the major concerns of Quayson’s recent postcolonial thought, namely the social construction of urban space, and the cultural representation of contemporary tragedy. Readings will be drawn from recent journal articles and from these two books by Quayson: Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism (Duke University Press, 2014); Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2021).