Spring 2004 Courses

English 342 - 03: Anglophone Literature (Wright)

Monday evenings, 7-10 pm
Main 002

In this course we will be comparing and contrasting the literary production of three different black communities in the West: Black Britons, Anglophone Caribbeans, and African Americans. While our discussions and analyses cannot be exhaustive, the goal of this course is to examine and debate the different ways in which "blackness" must negotiate different types of English-speaking dominant cultures: as the so-called opposite of whiteness, or "Other"; as that which lacks civilization and/or history; and as a supposedly homogenous category that wholly unites all peoples of African descent. We'll start in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with slave autobiographies and black memoirs, focusing on the different ways the authors position themselves in relation to slaves and free blacks as well as whites and their "adopted" country. From there we will make a dizzying but necessary leap into the twentieth century, looking at how black authors on three different continents not only regard the West, but each other through the cultural and philosophical lenses of Modernism and postmodernism. Ten weekly assignments, one twenty-minute group presentation, one 1750-word midterm paper and one 2500-word final paper will be required. Readings will include (subject to availability!!): The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano; The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole by Mary Seacole; The Emigrants by George Lamming; poetry by Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, Grace Nichols, Jackie Kay, and Linton Kwesi Johnson; Atlantic Sound by Caryl Philips; Caucasia by Danzy Senna; Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy.

Spring 2004 Course Listings