Contemporary Voices: Speaking From the Margins

Fiction has always offered writers an opportunity to explore the pressing questions of their time; in this class, you read the work of contemporary writers with the aim of exploring what these writers see as the most critical issues of now and how they grapple with these questions in their stories. All of these writers have found themselves in one way or another on the margins either because of their identity, their novel or hybrid approach to language, or their experimental approach to storytelling. As a result, they are uniquely positioned to offer new and surprising insights into the contemporary world. Your reading of these works allows you to explore issues of identity, language, belonging and power with the aim of reflecting deeply on your own experiences and understanding of the world, and to consider the questions that matter to you.