ENLT 2513 Crossings: Race and Trans-Atlantic American Literature

 

Instructor: Sarah Ingle

Email: sei5j@virginia.edu

MWF 10:00-10:50 am in New Cabell #309

Spring 2016 Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 12:00-1:45 pm and by appointment

Office: Dawson’s Row #1, room #203

 

Course Description: Nations have borders and boundaries, but how do we determine the boundaries of a nation’s literature? In particular, how do we determine the boundaries of what we call “American” literature? In this course, we will read a variety of exciting texts that explore American literature from a trans-Atlantic perspective, focusing on "crossings" both literal and metaphorical. We will examine how works of American literature both reflect and respond to the historical construction and permeability of racial, cultural, and national boundaries. Assigned readings will include fiction, non-fiction, and poetry by writers from the 18^th, 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st centuries. Our discussions will explore how the texts on our syllabus interrogate concepts such as race, ethnicity, culture, gender, and citizenship and how they represent the complex web of history, memory, and myth that ties the present to the past. We will learn how the formal aspects of the texts—from verse forms to kinds of narration—shape the ways that texts make meaning for their audiences, and we will also look for ways in which the texts are in conversation with each other and with broader social trends. This course fulfills the second writing requirement.

 

Semester Schedule:

 

Week 1: Jan. 18-22

Wed 1/20: Introduction; Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (1773)

Fri: No class. Snow Day!

Week 2: Jan. 25-29

Mon: Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)

Wed: Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Fri: Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Week 3: Feb. 1-5

Mon: Thomas Jefferson, excerpts from Notes on the State of Virginia (1785)

Wed: Unca Eliza Winkfield, The Female American (1767)

Fri: Unca Eliza Winkfield, The Female American

Week 4: Feb. 8-12

Mon: Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838)

Wed: Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

Fri: Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

Week 5: Feb. 15-19

Mon: Mat Johnson, Pym (2011)

Wed: Mat Johnson, Pym

Fri: Mat Johnson, Pym

Week 6: Feb. 22-26

Mon: Herman Melville, “Benito Cereno” (1855)  

Wed: Frederick Douglass, “The Heroic Slave” (1852)

Fri: Victor Sejour, “The Mulatto” (1837) [Paper 1 is due today.]

Week 7: Feb. 29-March 4

Mon: William Wells Brown, Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter (1853)

Wed: William Wells Brown, Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter

Fri: William Wells Brown, Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter

Spring Break: March 5-13

Week 8: March 14-18

Mon: Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood (1902-03)

Wed: Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood

Fri: Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood [Revision of Paper 1 is due today.]

Week 9: March 21-25

Mon: Claude McKay, “Africa,” “America,” “The White House,” “To the White Fiends,” “Enslaved,” “Outcast,” “Heritage,” “My Native Land, My Home”; Countee Cullen, “Heritage”

Wed: James Baldwin, essays from Notes of a Native Son (1955)  

Fri: Robert Hayden, “Middle Passage” (1962) and Amistad (1997 movie)

Week 10: March 28-April 1

Mon: Maryse Condé, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (1986)

Wed: Maryse Condé, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem

Fri: Maryse Condé, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem [Paper 2 is due today.]

Week 11: April 4-8

Mon: Charles R. Johnson, Middle Passage (1990)

Wed: Charles R. Johnson, Middle Passage

Fri: Charles R. Johnson, Middle Passage

Week 12: April 11-15

Mon: Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River (1993)

Wed: Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River

Fri: Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River

Week 13: April 18-22

Mon: Derek Walcott, selected poems, excerpt from Omeros (1992)

Wed: Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (1988)

Fri: Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place

Week 14: April 25-29

Mon: Edwidge Danticat, “Children of the Sea” from Krik? Krak! [Paper 3 is due today.]

Wed: Toni Morrison, A Mercy (2008)

Fri: Toni Morrison, A Mercy

Week 15: May 2-6

Mon: Toni Morrison, A Mercy

Final Exam

 

Assignments:

 

Essays: You will write three short essays (5-7 pages) over the course of the semester. For the first paper, I will distribute prompts; for the others, you will choose your own topics. Successful papers take intellectual risks and demonstrate independent engagement with the text that goes beyond the points made in class. Your second and third papers should include at least one outside source in addition to the primary text.

 

Weekly Reading Responses: Each week you will need to submit a discussion question, comment, or insight to the class email about one of the week’s reading assignments. You may choose which day of the week you want to submit your response and which text or texts you want to consider. These email responses should be brief: at least 3 or 4 sentences but no longer than a couple of paragraphs. Quality matters more than quantity, so don’t feel pressured to share every single insight that you have about the text. Instead, focus on a specific line, word, passage, character, or event that you feel is important or worthy of further discussion and explain why you chose it. Feel free to comment on aspects of the text that make you angry, confused, or frustrated as well as on things that you like. The main purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about (and sharing with one another) questions and issues that you may want to explore in our class discussions or in your essays. The quality of your weekly reading responses will count toward your participation grade, and I will use them as inspiration when I write the final exam. Please submit each week’s reading response by 6 am at the latest so that your classmates and I have time to read it before class.

 

Article Analysis: You will be asked to sign up for two weeks when you will be responsible for finding a scholarly article about one of the texts, authors, or topics that we are discussing. Then, you will need to write a brief summary and analysis of the article’s argument. Your analysis should be about a page long (single-spaced) and should explain what you found compelling enlightening, or persuasive in the author’s argument and what (if anything) you consider to be its weaknesses or limitations. You should email your article analysis to the class by 11 pm on the night before our class meeting and be prepared to talk about it in class. You do not need to submit a separate reading response for that week.

 

Final Exam: The exam will consist of passage identification questions, several short answer questions in which you will demonstrate your close reading skills, and one long essay, in which you will demonstrate your mastery of the course material and ability to relate the texts to one another.

 

Absences: All students are expected to come to class on time and be prepared for discussion.  You will be allowed 2 absences that will not harm your grade. Use them wisely. Except in the case of true emergencies, any further absences will count against your overall grade.  Each absence after the first two lowers your final grade by one third of a letter grade. 

 

Grading: Your final grade for the course will be calculated according to this scheme:

Essay 1: 15%

Essay 2: 20%

Essay 3: 20%

Participation: 20% (includes weekly reading response emails)

Article Analysis: 5%

Final Exam: 20%

 

 

Nations have borders and boundaries, but how do we determine the boundaries of a nation’s literature? In particular, how do we determine the boundaries of what we call “American” literature? In this course, we will read a variety of exciting texts that explore American literature from a trans-Atlantic perspective, focusing on "crossings" both literal and metaphorical. We will examine how works of American literature both reflect and respond to the historical construction and permeability of racial, cultural, and national boundaries. Assigned readings will include fiction, non-fiction, and poetry by writers such as Thomas Jefferson, Edgar Allan Poe, Olaudah Equiano, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Pauline Hopkins, Claude McKay, James Baldwin, Jamaica Kincaid, Caryl Phillips, Derek Walcott, and Toni Morrison. Our discussions will explore how the texts on our syllabus interrogate concepts such as race, ethnicity, culture, gender, and citizenship and how they represent the complex web of history, memory, and myth that ties the present to the past. We will learn how the formal aspects of the texts—from verse forms to kinds of narration—shape the ways that texts make meaning for their audiences, and we will also look for ways in which the texts are in conversation with each other and with broader social trends. This course fulfills the second writing requirement.