ENGL 679-01 Special Topics in 20th-Century American ...



ENGL 5783 Introduction to African American Literature:

Spring 2008: M 5:30-8:15 p.m. HSS 3.04.08

Dr. Joycelyn Moody

Office location: 2.306C Main Office phone: 210.458.6857

Office hours: Tuesdays 10:30 am-Noon & by appt Email: joycelyn.moody@utsa.edu

Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction. —Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861)

…

this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro

beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world

where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,

this man, superb in love and logic, this man

shall be remembered.

--Robert Hayden, “Frederick Douglass” (1962)

Course goals. ENG 5783 offers a critical study of poetry, prose, and drama of African American writers. The course examines African American literatures by concentrating on original texts from the era of US slavery. It investigates ways that African American writers told and continue to retell—and to re-form the telling of—slavery nearly 150 years after Emancipation. We will focus on blacks’ representations of slavery since the eighteenth century to trace the development of black literary traditions through the contemporary era. We will trace both the literary and liberatory developments evident in these texts and their historical recuperations of black voice and subjectivity.

Principal questions of the course:

• What literary, historical, cultural, and political conditions inspired black people's telling or retelling of slavery at any given time in US history? What elements have sustained this impetus across US literary history?

• What experimental forms have black writers developed or reformed to (re)tell slavery?

• How do black writers destabilize notions of literacy and knowledge to record an official history of slavery?

• What challenges to verisimilitude, authority, and authenticity do black people face in developing an African American literary tradition?

By the end of the course, students will be able to (a) enumerate key ways that contemporary works of African American literature have been influenced by the literatures of slavery; (b) discuss major US black writers who explicitly acknowledge the influence of slavery on their work; (c) identify trends, tropes, and shifts in black literary texts about slavery; (d) perform close critical readings of black slavery-related texts; and (e) articulate some of the key historical and cultural foundations of African American literatures.

Course requirements. Students are expected to attend all class sessions and to participate actively in class discussions. Students will be involved in the professional development of an online teaching project for W. W. Norton. Please do not exceed specified page limits without permission. Paper submissions required. All written work must be punctually submitted for successful completion of the seminar; no written assignment is optional. “Incomplete” grades will be granted only in extreme circumstances.

Requirements by due date:

• Regular, prompt attendance (two absences allowed, no explanations required)

• Intellectual integrity

|Jan 14 Self-Assessment I |

|Jan 21 Critical Reading Notebook entry: 2-3 pp. each, single-spaced, on assigned text(s) or related theme; additional notebooks are required |

|later (See Calendar below.) |

|Feb 12 Last day for individual conversation with the professor; meet early! |

|Feb 18 Abstract proposal of anticipated revisions to unit of NAFAM guide |

|Mar 10 Annotated bibliography of 15-20 print resources and 3-6 multimedia resources published since 2003 on selected topic(s) for NAFAM |

|project (e-copy to be shared with classmates) |

|Mar 24 Last day to get approval of title for review of reviews assignment; ask early! |

|Mar 31 Review of scholarly reviews of a pre-approved title listed on the annotated bibliography, 7-10 double-spaced pp. |

|Apr 28 Self-Assessment II; portfolio of marked original copies of Notebook entries |

|Apr 28 NAFAM revision project portfolio: annotated multimedia bibliography, review of scholarly reviews, and list of recommended essay and |

|exam questions for final sections of NAFAM |

Students are expected to act on the highest ethics of academic honesty. Such conduct as plagiarism, collusion to cheat, the use (i.e., theft) of another’s research without appropriate acknowledgement or attribution, or the misuse of previously prepared course material will not be tolerated. If charges of academic dishonesty are found valid, a student may be reported to the Department Chair for disciplinary probation, suspension, or expulsion. Adjudicated cases of plagiarism will result in immediate failure of the entire course.

All written work should be typed in 12-point font with one-inch margins on all sides.

Self-Assessments (pass-fail). The first writing assignment is a 1-2-page typed, single-spaced self-assessment written at the outset of the course. It should clarify the thoughts and experience you bring to the course—your expectations, your goals, whatever you want to use the seminar to explore in terms of, for example, black cultures, African American literature, slavery, neoslave narratives as a genre, representations of African American experiences, your own values. Use this autobiographical statement to situate your own experiences within the course goals.

The final self-assessment essay should also consist of 1-2 typed, single-spaced pages. This essay might be a narrative about your overall intellectual experience in this seminar—why you took it, what problems and challenges it presented to you along the way, and how you addressed them. Or it might focus specifically on your writing for the course, what you learned from generating the particular texts that you produced, what you now understand to be your strengths and weaknesses as a scholar. Or it might enumerate critical insights you gained into the nature and impact of the profession as a result of the NAFAM revision project. This essay ideally reflects on and evaluates your overall intellectual growth in the seminar.

Occasional Critical Reading Notebook (and random oral presentations): 30% of final grade. These short analyses should address a recent assigned course reading. (Feel free to print on both sides of the page.) Each paper should make only one succinct, critical point; each should ideally be brought to the class session in which the assigned text is to be discussed. For example, the Notebook due on Jan 28 can address either the texts that were discussed on Jan 14 or those to be discussed on Jan 28. Select the topics for your papers in accordance with your individual scholarly interests, as the chief purposes of the Notebook assignment are to provide you an opportunity to tailor class discussions to your own interests and to provide opportunities for honing your oral presentation and discussion skills.

The Calendar below lists five dates on which the Notebook is due, but only four are required. That is, of the five stipulated dates, you should decide the four dates on which you will submit a Notebook entry and the one date on which you will take a “pass” or breather from the assignment. A portfolio of the four Notebooks will receive one grade at the end of the term.

Review of reviews: 20% of final grade. You are required to submit a scholarly review of reviews of a book, visual, or audio title on your chosen topic for the NAFAM revision project. The subject of your review must be pre-approved by Mar 24, and the final version is to be submitted on Mar 31. This assignment asks you to collect, collate, and comment on at least four reviews of a recent full-length treatment of an African American author, movement, trope, or trend; the form of the treatment can be a recent edition, reissue, or Internet archive of a text on your chosen NAFAM figure; or a recent scholarly monograph or collection of essays on your chosen topic. You need not read an entire book selection word for word, but whatever form you choose (book, film, etc.), you will need to have enough familiarity with it to assess the validity of the judgments made in each review. Your own review should argue a single, narrowly-conceived thesis. An unmarked copy of each review that you assess should be appended to your essay. The subject of your review must be pre-approved, so feel free to discuss options you’re interested in with me before Mar 24.

NAFAM revision project: 50% of final grade. The key goals of the Norton Anthology of African American Literature revision project are (a) to deepen your familiarity with African American literary authors and trends across several centuries, (b) to develop your critical research skills, and (c) to enrich your professionalization. So, you are required to accomplish a series of steps toward the completion of a professional online textbook guide revision project. The steps include

1. selecting a topic—i.e., one or more authors, trends, or units in the NAFAM that you will revise (pass/ fail);

2. drafting a statement of and rationale for anticipated revisions in terminology, tone, recommended resources, and so on (150-250 words, 10%);

3. researching and compiling an annotated bibliography of scholarly texts (books, articles, multimedia, etc.), on the chosen NAFAM revision project topic published since 2003 (20%). The bibliography should have both a title and a concise hypothesis that prefaces the list of citations, and the individual citations should conform to the current MLA style sheet. Citations should be in listed in alphabetical order and may be single spaced;

4. reviewing several reviews of one item cited on the annotated bibliography (cited above);

5. drafting exam and essay questions on the chosen topic to insert into the final sections of the revised teacher’s guide (20%).

This course will undoubtedly challenge many of your values, attitudes, beliefs, and ideas. You will need not only to come to class open-mindedly, but you will also need to approach your reading assignments open-mindedly. I expect you to raise questions in class and to see me in my office hours for further help if needed. It is your responsibility to contact me with any problems or issues you feel are getting in the way of your learning.

Predictably, many of the course readings deal with controversial issues that may prove difficult to discuss: racism, xenophobia, physical atrocities, and sexual violence ranging from humiliation to incest. At alternate points in the course, each of us will feel upset, discouraged, angry, distraught, proud, relieved, ashamed, and guilty about issues raised in discussion and course texts. If we are brave enough, we will engage in difficult, transformative discussions. Let me highlight one issue in particular that the class will encounter: the word nigger, which appears in many course readings. Given both the intense cultural weight and the sociopolitical history of this epithet, please refrain from using it. However, if perchance you are reading aloud in class from a specific text, please pronounce the word (rather than say “the n-word”). Obviously, our guiding principle is to show respect for each other at all times.

Required Texts

Fisch, Audrey, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the African American Slave Narrative. 2007. (CCAASN)

Foreman, P. Gabriele, and Reginald Pitts, eds. Our Nig. Penguin ed. 2004.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Nellie Y. McKay, gen. eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 2nd ed. 2004. (NAFAM)

Moody, J. Teaching with the Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2004. (provided)

Painter, Nell I., ed. Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Penguin ed. 1998.

Williams, Sherley Anne. Dessa Rose. Rpt. 1999.

Often I will email you with updated assignments, downloaded resources, or Internet links. Please plan to check your UTSA email account regularly.

Course calendar (subject to change): Please read assignments by the date indicated.

Please silence cell phone ringers before each class session. Please do not eat during class.

M Jan 14 Introductions and origins

M Jan 21 UTSA closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday: no class.

M Jan 28 DUE: Critical Reading Notebook. A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa: But Resident …in the United States (NAFAM 168-185); Pierce, “Redeeming Bondage: The Captivity Narrative and the Spiritual Autobiography in the African American Slave Narrative Tradition” (CCAASN 83-98).

M Feb 4 Films: Ethnic Notions; Unchained Voices

M Feb 11 DUE: Critical Reading Notebook. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (NAFAM 385-452); Stauffer, “Frederick Douglass’s Self-Fashioning and the Making of a Representative American Man” (CCAASN 201-17).

T Feb 12 Last day to talk individually with Professor Moody. Last day to notify Dr. Moody of topic selected for NAFAM revision project (e-communication okay).

M Feb 18 DUE: Proposal of Anticipated NAFAM Revisions. Toni Morrison’s birthday. Narrative of Sojourner Truth (Penguin ed. vii-x; 1-220)

M Feb 25 DUE: Critical Reading Notebook. Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave and Clotel (NAFAM excerpts 315- 345); Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (NAFAM excerpts 279-315); Santamarina, “Black Womanhood in North American Women’s Slave Narratives” (CCAASN 232-45).

M Mar 3 Wilson, Our Nig (Penguin ed.; read text and var. appendices); Weinstein, “The Slave Narrative and Sentimental Literature” (CCAASN 115-34).

M Mar 10 DUE: Annotated Bibliography on NAFAM topic. Women’s History Month film: Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice.

M Mar 17 Spring Break: no class.

T Mar 18 Spring Break: no office hrs.

M Mar 24 DUE: Critical Reading Notebook. Last day to get approval of title subject for review of reviews assignment. Chesnutt, “The Goophered Grapevine,” “The Passing of Grandison,” “The Wife of His Youth” (NAFAM 602-32); Reid-Pharr, “The Slave Narrative and Early Black American Literature” (CCAASN 137-49).

M Mar 31 DUE: Review of reviews. Harlem Renaissance poetry: a miscellany (NAFAM, pp. tba); McDowell, “Telling Slavery in ‘Freedom’s’ Time: Post-Reconstruction and the Harlem Renaissance” (CCAASN 150-67).

M Apr 7 DUE: Critical Reading Notebook. William Jay Greenly, The Three Drunkards (provided by prof.); Baraka, Dutchman (NAFAM 1946-1960).

M Apr 14 Williams, Dessa Rose (1999 rpt.); Smith, “Neo-slave Narratives” (CCAASN 168-85).

M Apr 21 Course evaluations. Catch up. NAFAM revision project.

M Apr 28 DUE: NAFAM revision project portfolio; Self-Assessment 2; portfolio of original Critical Reading Notebooks. Seminar celebration, 6-8 pm.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download