It’s the third week of January, and this heralds the start of a new semester for Chico State in the mid-sized town of Chico (northern California).

As an English professor who teaches a combination of World and Multicultural literature, I require my students to write regular blog articles (posted here on Blogster) in response to the literature we are discussing in class. There are several purposes for this. Perhaps the most important is to extend our discussions beyond the classroom into the wider world of the web. As I have said before in a previous Blog article, the idea is for my students to post their thoughts on the web---and then allow the world to write back! It’s one way to break out of the town-gown divide that we often hear about.

I think it would be good protocol to provide a brief overview of the books we are studying this semester. I’ll list them roughly in order of study. Please keep in mind that these are courses in World and Multicultural Literature—hence the absence of authors like Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, or George Orwell. Even though I admire these authors, they are taught by colleagues who specialize in American or British literature. (Footnote: I am doing my best to encourage these colleagues to follow my lead, but that’s the topic of another article in the future).

Kazuo Ishiguro--The Remains of the Day. If you enjoyed watching the Oscar-nominated film The King’s Speech, then I think you will enjoy this subtle and cleverly-written novel (also made into a fine film, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson). The story is narrated by an old school English butler who is witness to the disgrace and downfall of his “master” as a result of shady dealings with Nazi Germany.

Rumi--Love Is A Stranger. What is it about Rumi’s poems that make them so universally popular 700 years after his death? Why do luminaries such as Madonna and Deepak Chopra claim that their lives were changed after reading Rumi? It’s difficult to analyze his poems; rather, he demands that they be experienced. This poses a severe challenge for a teacher, especially when Rumi is read aloud in the stale and rather sterile confines of a four-walled classroom!

Nawal El Saadawi—Woman at Point Zero. This novel is still banned in Egypt today, and Nawal El Saadawi is hardly the darling of the political establishment there. This is her most famous (and controversial novel): the haunting story of a woman on death row, driven to murder by countless episodes of abuse and denigration.

Mohsin Hamid—The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Yes, I know the title is a turn-off. But hang in there. The protagonist (born in Pakistan, educated at Princeton, made rich by the American company he works for, yet still drawn to certain “fundamentalist” causes) is a complex, three-dimensional, and partly likable character. Soon to be made into a film (helmed by Mira Nair, director of The Namesake and Monsoon Wedding).

Bao Ninh—The Sorrow of War. It’s not easy to read a war story from a soldier’s point of view: it’s raw, authentic, unvarnished, unsettling. Imagine, then, reading a story about the Vietnam war—except it’s told from the perspective of a North Vietnamese soldier, and he calls it “the American War.” The results are intense, powerful, and—yes—disturbing.

Rattawut Lapcharoensap—Sightseeing. OK, let’s do the name first---it’s pronounced Rat-ta-wut Lap-char-rowan-sap. He’s a young Thai writer who received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. This is his first book of short stories—all set in Thailand. He writes with a good eye for detail and with deep affection for his characters, whether they are native Thai or “farangs” (foreign tourists).

Bessie Head—A Question of Power. This is probably the toughest book on the list. It’s also probably the best novel ever written about madness and schizophrenia---from the viewpoint of a South African-born woman who relocates to neighboring Botswana, only to lose her grasp on reality. She becomes haunted by spirits—both good and evil.

Bessie Head—The Collector of Treasures. Bessie Head also wrote many short stories based on her experiences living in a small village in Botswana. The stories often center on a conflict between tradition and modernity in the village: how long-standing traditions such as witchcraft and patriarchal leadership collide with new influences from the outside world.

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela—A Human Being Died That Night. This is a historical memoir about post-apartheid South Africa. It is written by a clinical psychologist who interviews one of apartheid’s most hated commanding officers (Eugene de Kock, aka “Prime Evil”), now serving a 212-year sentence in a South African maximum-security jail. She finds him to be capable of surprising gestures of warmth and humanism. Is this another Hannibal Lecter scenario in the making, perhaps?

Bharati Mukherjee—Jasmine. Mukherjee is an Indian-born, now Berkeley-based author of prize-winning novels and stories. Jasmine is not only the story of a young girl from a small village in India who starts a new life in the Midwest of the U.S., but it is also a tribute to the transformative and regenerative power of American culture.

Salman Rushdie—East, West. Most of these stories were written in the wake of Rushdie’s ongoing arguments with certain Muslim leaders for writing The Satanic Verses, widely interpreted in Islamic circles as insulting and offensive. Like him or not, Rushdie provokes thought (as well as controversy).

Haruki Murakami—The Elephant Vanishes. You’ll probably find these stories are surreal, bizarre, and absurd. So, what better way to finish the semester than indulge in the weird imagination of Haruki Murakami---Japan’s wildly popular writer and cultural icon?

Phew! Yes, this is a long list of books but keep in mind that this reflects three courses!

Enjoy your reading, writing, and commenting!!!