Jhumpa Lahiri and Chimamanda Adichie are two of the best and best-known contemporary writers of fiction describing the lives and experiences of those that migrate, and those that remain behind. Pulitzer Prize-winning Jhumpa Lahiri is celebrated for her depiction of immigrant and Indian-American life, and she writes about the universal themes of longing, loneliness and barriers of communication. Chimamanda Adichie is Nigerian and was educated both in Nigeria and the US. She writes about maintaining a cultural identity as an immigrant in a new place, and the clash of traditional practices with modern ideas. (2nd 7 weeks)
Week 1: "Cell One", and "Jumping Monkey Hill", from The Thing Around Your Neck
Week 2: "The Arrangers of Marriage", and "On Monday of Last Week", from The Thing Around Your Neck
Week 3: "The Thing Around Your Neck", and "Imitation" from The Thing Around Your Neck
Week 4: "The Headstrong Historian", from The Thing Around Your Neck; and "Sexy", from Interpreter of Maladies
Week 5: "A Temporary Matter", and "Interpreter of Maladies", from Interpreter of Maladies
Week 6: "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar", and "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine", from Interpreter of Maladies
Week 7: " Mrs. Sen's", and "The Third and Final Continent", from Interpreter of Maladies"
Chimamanda Adichie, The Thing Around Your Neck, Knopf 2009
Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2000