Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

English

First Advisor

Anne E Geller

Second Advisor

Raj Chetty

Third Advisor

Dohra Ahmad

Abstract

moving them forward together in translingual global literature courses through valuing the repertoires and personal experiences students bring into the classroom. The semester-long mixed method study reported includes both survey respondents (N=134) and interview participants (N=7) and foregrounds student voices to argue that a translingual orientation is an optimal response to the needs of the global literature classroom. In the first chapter I review global/world literature theory discussing the purpose and content of global/world literature courses in higher education. In a chapter overviewing translingual theory, I present the main tenets of the theory including negotiation, fluidity and valuing difference and argue that all communicative tools are an integrated repertoire (Canagarajah), which allows translingualism to move past binaries, past just language. I argue that by incorporating the individual repertoires of students and emphasizing fluidity and difference through a translingual approach, translingualism pushes against standardization/monolingual orientation and reprioritizes what is valued in global literature courses. I then turn to the student experiences of the seven interview participants through a case study designed to reflect and present student voices and personal experiences. In the dissertation’s final chapter, I identify themes that help demonstrate what is valued in global literature classrooms (or at least in the classrooms the student participants of this study experienced) and point to what should be prioritized in the global literature classroom if we are to consider a translingual approach. I theorize by pushing past the canon and exploring global works while also incorporating a translingual approach, student voices, repertoires, and personal experience can become prioritized. I conclude this dissertation arguing that global/world literature courses need to be reconceptualized both pragmatically and theoretically to allow for a translingual approach. In other words, if students’ communicative repertoires are valued holistically, their repertoires are not viewed as deficient but lived, moving, progressing and this approach can encourage institutions to change and show paths for change.

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