Courses in American Studies

..might be a troubling thing, if you examine it closely. Like stamp-collecting, say, it sounds a little old-fashioned these days, a little lonely and sad, probably harmless but possibly pathetic-no offense! Like any other love, it demands loyalties and incites betrayals, and its contradictions become more volatile as its passion becomes more intense. And like anything else, it testifies to the burden of its history as much through what it forgets as through what it chooses to remember. In this course, we'll encounter this love for literature as manifested, in ambivalent and often vexed ways, by African American and Asian American writers as they reflect on literacy, culture, and the "civilizing mission." We will consider how this love bears the weight of histories of slavery, conquest, exploitation, and violence, and how it has been appropriated, recast, or rejected in pursuit of freedom and/or privilege. Readings may include works by Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Carlos Bulosan, José Garcia Villa, Harryette Mullen, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Jamaica Kincaid.

Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: active class participation and four to five short papers totaling about 20 pages.

No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 19). Preference given to first-year students.

Hour: Fall 11:00-11:50 MWF; Spring 10:00-10:50 WMF