Description of Course:
This course attends to a rather thematically unified set of literary works by twentieth-century African-American authors: stories and novels using, questioning, and/or expanding on historical and mythical "knowledge" to both re-visit and re-write the African-American experience. These works will transport us out of our "real" or everyday, contemporary lives into the imaginative historical and mythical worlds the various fictional characters function in and, oftentimes, seek to understand. Through preliminary reading and discussion of select secondary readings, we will explore questions raised about the appropriateness and limitations of using some standard definitions of historical fiction to categorize this body of work, as well as contemporary critical inquiry into the roles of ideology and myth in historical thought and construction generally. Throughout the course, however, we will increasingly focus our attention on seeking to read closely and articulate what we see the individual authors trying to accomplish in their fiction-making projects and how they invite readers to experience their work.
Though we will begin reading authors striving to dramatize the historical scene of slavery and its aftermath, we will weave--forward and back--toward fiction exploring ways in which Biblical and African mythology can be useful for developing understanding and representation of privileged values, features, and conflicts in contemporary African-American life. Thus the authors we will study increasingly depart from "factual" or "true" historical materials and narratives toward what one critic has called fashioning "myths for now" which invite us to broaden and test our historical sense, re-think our notions of heroism and freedom, community and family, and sacred and secular ideals and practices. We might say, then, that we will trace the trajectory that the contemporary historiographer Hayden White outlines for modern writers, when he wrote: "[H]istory is not only a substantive burden imposed upon the present by the past in the form of outmoded institutions, ideas, and values, but also the way of looking at the world which gives to these outmoded forms their specious authority . . . . This is why so much of modern fiction turns upon the attempt to liberate Western man from the tyranny of historical consciousness."
Required Texts:
Expectations and Course Requirements:
Class Framework/Participation--Students should expect to engage in thoughtful and responsible reading and dialogue throughout this course; while there is a good deal of reading required, its thematic unification should facilitate momentum. Participation in class discussion of the material will constitute a significant portion of each student's overall course grade.
The course will not be driven by formal lecture since the nature of the material, as stated above, invites a kind of reader "transportation" or engagement and exploration rather than final achievement of expertise in an established and authoritative body of "original" knowledge. While background material will be presented as informal lecture sporadically, as appropriate, students are expected to attend each class having completed the assigned reading for the day and prepared to offer one question, problem, or observation for general class discussion. We will probably break into small-groups from time to time to facilitate focus on questions raised by the readings.
In addition to everyday participation, however, students will also (in pairs) take a turn at opening general class discussion via informal verbal presentation of one of the secondary readings [i.e., providing a brief general summary of the article at hand and exploring the value and limits of applying the article to our primary reading(s)].*
Writing Component--You will write two formal essays (typed, double spaced, with one-inch margins all around) in this course, and you are encouraged to follow and/or develop your own interests in these papers, as appropriate, in the context of the course. [That is, you must work in the area of African-American literature and consider some aspect of mythology and/or history in the text(s) you choose to write about, though you are welcome to work on non-fiction works.] Both essays should include both a general argument and textual evidence to support it.
The first essay will be a five-seven page paper written in response to either a question or direction of inquiry proposed in advance by the instructor or an individually defined topic (to be discussed in advance with the instructor). The second essay will be an eight-ten page paper on an individually defined topic (also discussed with the instructor); it may develop interest(s) raised in the earlier paper or explore new lines of inquiry. This second paper should thoughtfully engage both secondary and primary reading(s), though it need not involve outside research.
NOTE: The grade for any late papers will drop one-third of a letter grade (e.g., from B to B-) each day the class meets (e.g., MWF) unless special arrangement has been made with the instructor. (Extensions will be granted only in the case of illness, illness, family emergency, or other justifiable reason.) Any incompletes must be negotiated before the last week of classes and will be offered only in the case of a justifiable and/or unforeseen problem completing the work on schedule. No final papers will be accepted beyond Reading Period except those of students who have taken incompletes in the course.
Reading and Assignment Schedule:
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Mon., 2/8 |
Course Introduction |
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Wed., 2/10 |
Arna Bontemps, Black Thunder (Book One) |
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Fri., 2/12 |
Black Thunder (Book Two) |
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Mon., 2/15 |
Black Thunder (Books 3-5) |
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Wed., 2/17 |
Harry Shaw, "An Approach to the Historical Novel," Hayden White, "Interpretation in History," Southern Historical Society, "The Uses of History in Fiction" |
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Fri., 2/19 |
Above essays, cont'd; Discussion: Problems in Historical Fiction |
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Mon., 2/22 |
Walter Benjamin, "The Storyteller," Ernest Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (Book 1) |
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Wed., 2/24 |
Miss Jane Pittman ( pp. 65-150) |
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Fri., 2/26 |
Miss Jane Pittman (pp. 151-end) |
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Mon., 3/1 |
Orlando Patterson, "The Constituent Elements of Slavery" and "Authority, Alienation, and Social Death," Albert Raboteau, "The African Diaspora," Octavia Butler, Kindred (pp. 1-51) |
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Wed., 3/3 |
Octavia Butler, Kindred (pp. 52-107) |
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Fri., 3/5 |
Kindred (pp. 108-188) |
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Mon., 3/8 |
Kindred (pp. 189-end) |
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Wed., 3/10 |
Discussion: Preliminary Synthesis |
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Fri., 3/12 |
Workshop: Papers in Progress |
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Mon., 3/15 |
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Wed., 3/17 |
Chaneysville Incident (pp. 77-160) |
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Fri., 3/19 |
Chaneysville Incident (pp. 161-242) |
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Spring Break |
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Mon., 3/29 |
Warren Susman, "History and the American Intellectual," Chaneysville Incident (pp. 243-309) |
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Wed., 3/31 |
Joseph Campbell, "The Monomyth," Chaneysville Incident (pp. 309-371) |
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Fri., 4/2 |
Chaneysville Incident (pp. 371-end) |
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Mon., 4/5 |
John Roberts, "The Power Within," Isidore Okpewho, "The Cousins of Uncle Remus," Charles Chesnutt, The Conjure Woman (pp. 1-102) |
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Wed., 4/7 |
Conjure Woman (pp. 103-161) |
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Fri., 4/9 |
Conjure Woman (pp. 162-end) |
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Mon., 4/12 |
Northrup Frye, "Myth I," Wole Soyinka, "Morality and Aesthetics in the Ritual Archetype," Zora Neale Hurston, Moses, Man of the Mountain (pp. 1-74) |
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Wed., 4/14 |
Moses (pp. 75-149) |
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Fri., 4/16 |
Moses (pp. 150-224) |
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Mon., 4/19 |
Karla Holloway, "Mythologies," Moses (pp. 225-end) |
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Wed., 4/21 |
Ishmael Reed, "Neo-Hoodoo Aesthetic," Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo (pp. 1-60) |
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Fri., 4/23 |
Sami Ludwig, "Dialogic Possession in Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo," Mumbo Jumbo (pp. 60-126) |
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Mon., 4/26 |
Zora Neale Hurston, "Voodoo and Voodoo Gods," Mumbo Jumbo (pp. 126-end) |
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Wed., 4/28 |
Robert Hood, "Ancestors and Saints," Folktale, "People Who Could Fly," Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (pp. 1-55) |
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Fri., 4/30 |
Song of Solomon (pp. 56-112) |
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Mon., 5/3 |
Song of Solomon (pp. 113-172) |
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Wed., 5/5 |
Song of Solomon (pp. 173-258) |
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Fri., 5/7 |
Song of Solomon (pp. 259-end) |
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Mon., 5/10 |
John Edgar Wideman, Damballah (pp. 1-79) |
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Wed., 5/12 |
Damballah (80-129) |
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Fri., 5/14 |
Damballah (133-end) |
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FINAL PAPER DUE, Mon., 5/17, 10:00 a.m., Rice Hall 28 |
*Articles for Discussion Presenters
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