notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
The Outsider in Global Anglophone
Literature
Short summaries.......................................................................................................................5
Bartleby................................................................................................................................ 5
The Scarlet Letter................................................................................................................. 5
Mrs Dalloway....................................................................................................................... 6
Their Eyes Were Watching God........................................................................................... 6
The God of Small Things..................................................................................................... 7
The Great Gatsby................................................................................................................. 8
The Catcher in the Rye......................................................................................................... 9
On the Road..........................................................................................................................9
The Bell Jar........................................................................................................................ 10
Native Son.......................................................................................................................... 11
Beloved...............................................................................................................................11
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous......................................................................................12
Assembly............................................................................................................................ 12
Exam........................................................................................................................................ 14
Outsidership & literary representation: the case of Bartleby (1856) (Herman Melville)...
15
Outsidership....................................................................................................................... 15
Herman Melville: Bartleby (1856)..................................................................................... 15
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter (1850)................................................................19
Biographical/historical background................................................................................... 19
The book (Penguin Classics, Intr. by Nina Baym)............................................................. 21
Excerpts.............................................................................................................................. 25
Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway (1925)...................................................................................26
The author.......................................................................................................................... 26
“Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Brown” (1924)................................................................................28
About Modernism:............................................................................................................. 28
The novel (Penguin Classic).............................................................................................. 29
Excerpts (Penguin Books).................................................................................................. 31
Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)........................................... 33
Biographical....................................................................................................................... 33
Cultural context.................................................................................................................. 34
The novel............................................................................................................................35
Significant passages........................................................................................................... 37
Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things (1997)............................................................... 39
1. Author: Arundhati Roy.................................................................................................. 40
notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
1
, notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
2. Style and Structure of the Novel.................................................................................... 40
3. Setting and Time Frame................................................................................................. 40
4. The Indian Caste System................................................................................................40
Main categories:........................................................................................................... 40
5. Characters and Relationships......................................................................................... 41
The Ipe Family............................................................................................................. 41
Other Characters...........................................................................................................41
6. Key Events and Themes................................................................................................. 41
Ammu’s Rebellion........................................................................................................41
Vellya Paappen’s Betrayal............................................................................................ 41
7. Symbolism and Excerpts................................................................................................ 42
8. Comparative Reference: Their Eyes Were Watching God............................................. 43
9. Central Ideas...................................................................................................................43
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (1925)......................................................................45
F. Scott Fitzgerald...............................................................................................................45
Historical background........................................................................................................ 47
Characters...........................................................................................................................48
“An age of satire”............................................................................................................... 50
“An age of miracles”.......................................................................................................... 51
An American versus America............................................................................................ 51
J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye (1951)...................................................................... 53
About the author.................................................................................................................53
About the novel.................................................................................................................. 55
Structure....................................................................................................................... 56
Themes......................................................................................................................... 56
Jewish-American Literature?............................................................................................. 58
Quotes.................................................................................................................................59
Jack Kerouac: On the Road (1957).......................................................................................60
About the author.................................................................................................................61
About the novel.................................................................................................................. 63
The road in On the Road.............................................................................................. 64
(Self-)discovery...................................................................................................... 64
Into the American Dream....................................................................................... 64
Driving & mourning: orphans & fathers................................................................ 65
The end......................................................................................................................... 66
Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar (1963).......................................................................................... 67
Overview (Sparknotes).......................................................................................................67
Full Book Analysis (Sparknotes)....................................................................................... 68
Sylvia Plath, biographically............................................................................................... 70
The Bell Jar........................................................................................................................ 71
Themes, motives...........................................................................................................72
notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
2
, notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
Quotes.................................................................................................................................72
The ending of Mrs Dalloway:............................................................................................ 75
Richard Wright: Native Son (1940)...................................................................................... 76
1. Context: Racism, Outsidership, and Criticism............................................................... 76
2. Richard Wright: Life and Background........................................................................... 76
3. Racial Darwinism in America........................................................................................ 77
4. W.E.B. Du Bois: Veil and Double Consciousness..........................................................78
5. Plot Outline of Native Son............................................................................................. 78
Structure: fear, flight, fate............................................................................................ 78
6. Self-Hatred, Alienation, and Internalization of the White Gaze.................................... 79
7. Bigger’s Relationships................................................................................................... 79
8. Parallels with Camus’s L’Étranger................................................................................. 79
9. Literary Parallels to Outsidership...................................................................................80
10. Bigger’s Hatred of the White World (Key Passages)...................................................80
11. Meaning of the Title: Native Son................................................................................. 80
12. Baldwin’s Critique (“Everybody’s Protest Novel,” 1949)........................................... 80
Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987)..............................................................................................81
Author.................................................................................................................................81
Beloved...............................................................................................................................83
Motives/themes:........................................................................................................... 88
Killing Beloved............................................................................................................ 90
Beloved the trickster.....................................................................................................90
“the jungle inside” (the insidiousness of slavery)........................................................ 90
The three stages of the healing ritual............................................................................90
Time line main events:................................................................................................. 90
Quotes.................................................................................................................................92
“the jungle inside” (the insidiousness of slavery):....................................................... 92
Redemption: Memory, Love.........................................................................................92
Ocean Vuong: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019)................................................... 92
The author.......................................................................................................................... 93
The novel (Penguin Books)................................................................................................93
The War........................................................................................................................ 94
Violence........................................................................................................................95
Drugs............................................................................................................................ 96
Quotes.................................................................................................................................97
Background reading (required):......................................................................................... 97
Natasha Brown: Assembly (2021)......................................................................................... 98
The author.......................................................................................................................... 98
The novel............................................................................................................................98
Introduction: Assembly in the Course Trajectory...................................................... 101
Rethinking Outsidership: From Exclusion to Conditional Inclusion......................... 102
notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
3
, notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
Neoliberal Meritocracy and the Myth of Arrival....................................................... 102
The Unnamed Narrator...............................................................................................103
Social Spaces as Sites of Managed Belonging...........................................................103
Comparative Perspectives Across the Syllabus......................................................... 103
The Ending: Refusal, Survival, or Both?................................................................... 104
Conclusion: Why Assembly Is a Difficult but Essential Text....................................104
Quotes...............................................................................................................................105
Assembly & Mrs Dalloway: Rewriting, Refusal, and Racialized Outsidership............. 106
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 106
Arguments in Favour of Reading Assembly as a Rewriting of Mrs Dalloway................106
Shared Temporal and Structural Design.....................................................................106
Interior Monologue and Social Performance............................................................. 107
Belonging, Outsidership, and Social Ritual............................................................... 107
Illness, Death, and Meaning....................................................................................... 107
Arguments Against the Rewriting Thesis........................................................................ 108
The Risk of Subordination......................................................................................... 108
Significant Formal Divergence.................................................................................. 108
Fundamentally Different Models of Outsidership......................................................108
Absence of Explicit Intertextual Signposting.............................................................109
Toward a Productive Synthesis........................................................................................ 109
Pedagogical Value of the Comparison............................................................................. 109
Conclusion........................................................................................................................110
notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
4
The Outsider in Global Anglophone
Literature
Short summaries.......................................................................................................................5
Bartleby................................................................................................................................ 5
The Scarlet Letter................................................................................................................. 5
Mrs Dalloway....................................................................................................................... 6
Their Eyes Were Watching God........................................................................................... 6
The God of Small Things..................................................................................................... 7
The Great Gatsby................................................................................................................. 8
The Catcher in the Rye......................................................................................................... 9
On the Road..........................................................................................................................9
The Bell Jar........................................................................................................................ 10
Native Son.......................................................................................................................... 11
Beloved...............................................................................................................................11
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous......................................................................................12
Assembly............................................................................................................................ 12
Exam........................................................................................................................................ 14
Outsidership & literary representation: the case of Bartleby (1856) (Herman Melville)...
15
Outsidership....................................................................................................................... 15
Herman Melville: Bartleby (1856)..................................................................................... 15
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter (1850)................................................................19
Biographical/historical background................................................................................... 19
The book (Penguin Classics, Intr. by Nina Baym)............................................................. 21
Excerpts.............................................................................................................................. 25
Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway (1925)...................................................................................26
The author.......................................................................................................................... 26
“Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Brown” (1924)................................................................................28
About Modernism:............................................................................................................. 28
The novel (Penguin Classic).............................................................................................. 29
Excerpts (Penguin Books).................................................................................................. 31
Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)........................................... 33
Biographical....................................................................................................................... 33
Cultural context.................................................................................................................. 34
The novel............................................................................................................................35
Significant passages........................................................................................................... 37
Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things (1997)............................................................... 39
1. Author: Arundhati Roy.................................................................................................. 40
notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
1
, notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
2. Style and Structure of the Novel.................................................................................... 40
3. Setting and Time Frame................................................................................................. 40
4. The Indian Caste System................................................................................................40
Main categories:........................................................................................................... 40
5. Characters and Relationships......................................................................................... 41
The Ipe Family............................................................................................................. 41
Other Characters...........................................................................................................41
6. Key Events and Themes................................................................................................. 41
Ammu’s Rebellion........................................................................................................41
Vellya Paappen’s Betrayal............................................................................................ 41
7. Symbolism and Excerpts................................................................................................ 42
8. Comparative Reference: Their Eyes Were Watching God............................................. 43
9. Central Ideas...................................................................................................................43
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (1925)......................................................................45
F. Scott Fitzgerald...............................................................................................................45
Historical background........................................................................................................ 47
Characters...........................................................................................................................48
“An age of satire”............................................................................................................... 50
“An age of miracles”.......................................................................................................... 51
An American versus America............................................................................................ 51
J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye (1951)...................................................................... 53
About the author.................................................................................................................53
About the novel.................................................................................................................. 55
Structure....................................................................................................................... 56
Themes......................................................................................................................... 56
Jewish-American Literature?............................................................................................. 58
Quotes.................................................................................................................................59
Jack Kerouac: On the Road (1957).......................................................................................60
About the author.................................................................................................................61
About the novel.................................................................................................................. 63
The road in On the Road.............................................................................................. 64
(Self-)discovery...................................................................................................... 64
Into the American Dream....................................................................................... 64
Driving & mourning: orphans & fathers................................................................ 65
The end......................................................................................................................... 66
Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar (1963).......................................................................................... 67
Overview (Sparknotes).......................................................................................................67
Full Book Analysis (Sparknotes)....................................................................................... 68
Sylvia Plath, biographically............................................................................................... 70
The Bell Jar........................................................................................................................ 71
Themes, motives...........................................................................................................72
notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
2
, notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
Quotes.................................................................................................................................72
The ending of Mrs Dalloway:............................................................................................ 75
Richard Wright: Native Son (1940)...................................................................................... 76
1. Context: Racism, Outsidership, and Criticism............................................................... 76
2. Richard Wright: Life and Background........................................................................... 76
3. Racial Darwinism in America........................................................................................ 77
4. W.E.B. Du Bois: Veil and Double Consciousness..........................................................78
5. Plot Outline of Native Son............................................................................................. 78
Structure: fear, flight, fate............................................................................................ 78
6. Self-Hatred, Alienation, and Internalization of the White Gaze.................................... 79
7. Bigger’s Relationships................................................................................................... 79
8. Parallels with Camus’s L’Étranger................................................................................. 79
9. Literary Parallels to Outsidership...................................................................................80
10. Bigger’s Hatred of the White World (Key Passages)...................................................80
11. Meaning of the Title: Native Son................................................................................. 80
12. Baldwin’s Critique (“Everybody’s Protest Novel,” 1949)........................................... 80
Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987)..............................................................................................81
Author.................................................................................................................................81
Beloved...............................................................................................................................83
Motives/themes:........................................................................................................... 88
Killing Beloved............................................................................................................ 90
Beloved the trickster.....................................................................................................90
“the jungle inside” (the insidiousness of slavery)........................................................ 90
The three stages of the healing ritual............................................................................90
Time line main events:................................................................................................. 90
Quotes.................................................................................................................................92
“the jungle inside” (the insidiousness of slavery):....................................................... 92
Redemption: Memory, Love.........................................................................................92
Ocean Vuong: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019)................................................... 92
The author.......................................................................................................................... 93
The novel (Penguin Books)................................................................................................93
The War........................................................................................................................ 94
Violence........................................................................................................................95
Drugs............................................................................................................................ 96
Quotes.................................................................................................................................97
Background reading (required):......................................................................................... 97
Natasha Brown: Assembly (2021)......................................................................................... 98
The author.......................................................................................................................... 98
The novel............................................................................................................................98
Introduction: Assembly in the Course Trajectory...................................................... 101
Rethinking Outsidership: From Exclusion to Conditional Inclusion......................... 102
notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
3
, notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
Neoliberal Meritocracy and the Myth of Arrival....................................................... 102
The Unnamed Narrator...............................................................................................103
Social Spaces as Sites of Managed Belonging...........................................................103
Comparative Perspectives Across the Syllabus......................................................... 103
The Ending: Refusal, Survival, or Both?................................................................... 104
Conclusion: Why Assembly Is a Difficult but Essential Text....................................104
Quotes...............................................................................................................................105
Assembly & Mrs Dalloway: Rewriting, Refusal, and Racialized Outsidership............. 106
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 106
Arguments in Favour of Reading Assembly as a Rewriting of Mrs Dalloway................106
Shared Temporal and Structural Design.....................................................................106
Interior Monologue and Social Performance............................................................. 107
Belonging, Outsidership, and Social Ritual............................................................... 107
Illness, Death, and Meaning....................................................................................... 107
Arguments Against the Rewriting Thesis........................................................................ 108
The Risk of Subordination......................................................................................... 108
Significant Formal Divergence.................................................................................. 108
Fundamentally Different Models of Outsidership......................................................108
Absence of Explicit Intertextual Signposting.............................................................109
Toward a Productive Synthesis........................................................................................ 109
Pedagogical Value of the Comparison............................................................................. 109
Conclusion........................................................................................................................110
notes the outsider in global anglophone literature (2025)
4
