In this course, we will read literature from different periods of the post-Columbian Americas, and we will focus on domestic spaces and domesticity as an interpretive strategy. Although our approach will be very historically based, the issues we will address are still very much at the heart of contemporary public discourse; thus, you should endeavor to contextualize issues inside class with events outside class. At the beginning of each section, there are keywords listed before the weekly assignments. Use them as guides for reading and for preparing for class.
I. Search for home, living in between, gendered spaces, reproduction.
8/28: Introduction, Lecture on cultural collision in the Americas Begin
reading Shakespeare, William. The Tempest
8/30: The Tempest
9/2: NO CLASS -- Labor Day
9/4: The Tempest
9/6: The Tempest
9/9: Nu¤ez Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar. Adventures in the Unknown Interior of
America
9/11: Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America
9/13: Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America
9/16: Test
II. National narratives, new bodies, human and geographic definitions of
Americas and America.
9/18: Lecture on Nineteenth Century
9/20: Lecture on Nineteenth Century
9/23: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selected Essays
9/25: Emerson
9/27: Emerson
9/30: NO CLASS
10/2: R¢mulo Gallegos, Do¤a Barbara
10/4: Do¤a Barbara
10/7: Do¤a Barbara
10/9: Do¤a Barbara
10/11: Test
III. Slavery and sectionalism, domestic spaces and narrative structures, houses found and lost
10/14: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
10/16: Uncle Tom's Cabin
10/18: Uncle Tom's Cabin
10/21: Uncle Tom's Cabin
10/23: Uncle Tom's Cabin
10/25: DuBois, W.E.B. Souls of Black Folk
10/28: Souls of Black Folk
10/30: Souls of Black Folk
Proposals for Research Paper due
11/1: Souls of Black Folk
11/4: Souls of Black Folk
11/6: Test
IV. Gendered spaces, search for home, national narratives and new sectionalisms, houses found, lost, and invented
11/8: Willa Cather, The Professor's House.
11/11: The Professor's House
11/13: The Professor's House.
11/15: The Professor's House.
11/18: Juan Rulfo, Pedro Paramo.
11/20: Pedro Paramo
11/22: Pedro Paramo
11/25: Menchu, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala
11/27: I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala
11/29: NO CLASS -- Thanksgiving
Research Paper (10-12 pp.) due
12/2: I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala
12/4: I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala
12/6: Wrap up
Final Exam
Assignments: four tests (60%), research paper (30%), class participation (10%).
All readings will be in English.