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.