ENG5101H: The Problem of Elsewhere

Graham Greenes works often depict the decay of empire: The Heart of the Matter (1948) depicts Sierra Leone under British possession; The Quiet American (1955) depicts CIA activity as the French and Vietminh fought for control of Vietnam in the early 1950s. His works also depict revolutionary struggles against repressive regimes, as in Our Man in Havana (1958), set in Cuba in the years immediately before the accession of Fidel Castro; The Comedians (1966) set in the "nightmare republic" of Haiti under Papa Doc Duvalier; and The Honorary Consul (1973) set on the border of Argentina and Paraguay in the approach to the "Dirty War." This course would look at Greene’s attempt, imaginatively, to break out of the East-West dualism of the Cold War and turn his attention as a novelist to the Global South. Critics often refer to his sense of place as "Greeneland" – a territory of political uncertainty, poverty, and vulnerability, which he defined partly by pure observation, as he was an outstanding international journalist, but also by preoccupations with theology and psychoanalysis. His work repeatedly establishes imaginative elsewheres, and this course would seek to probe his accomplishments.

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St. George