FALL 1999
This information effective for Fall 1999.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
MWF 11-12:10, Soc Sci 2 Rm. 71 (plus sections if enrollment over 40)
Despite Hegel's claim that the Americas represent the end of history,writers both North and South obsessively borrow from-- and pose challengesto-- the authority of the historical record. The fiction, poetry, andfilms we will study in this course seek to revisit the past through theimagination: in particular, to moments of collective trauma in theconflicted history of the Americas that continue to haunt the present.
Our readings will lead us to consider critical problems such as thefollowing: is it possible, or appropriate, to seek to "reconstruct" thepast? How do the workings of individual memory illuminate the means ofcollective remembering and forgetting? How has art been put in the serviceof national and/or ethnic identity? Can one imagine an "American" literarytradition that encompasses the entire hemisphere, and how does Latinoliterature work toward this end?
Requirements: completion of reading (possible in-class reading quizzes);consistent attendance and participation; two short (3-5 page) essays;in-class group work preparing background information on a given historicaltopic; final evaluation either a 10-page essay on one or more texts OR afinal exam.
REQUIRED TEXTS
1. FICTION (4-5 short novels, 1 long novel, chosen from AMONG the following):
Alejo Carpentier, _The Kingdom of This World_ (1952) (18c Caribbean slave
revolts)
Herman Melville, _Benito Cereno_ (1855) (19c US-Caribbean slave revolts)
Francisco Goldman, _The Ordinary Seaman_ (1996) (Nicaraguan revolution; Central American diaspora in US)
Rosa Marta Villareal, _Dcotor Magdalena_ (1994) (Spanish conquest of Mexico)
Elena Garro, _Memories of the Future_ (1960) (Mexican Revolution)
Reinaldo Arenas, _The Doorman_ (1996) (Cuban rev.; exile in NY)
Gayl Jones, _Corregidora_ (1975) (African diaspora US/Latin America)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, _The General in his Labyrinth_ (1988) (19c Latin American independence)
2. POETRY AND ESSAYS (chosen from the following authors):
Walt Whitman (US) + Jose Marti (Cuba) on the hemisphere
Nicolas Guillen (Cuba) + Langston Hughes (US) on pan-Africanism
Eduardo Galeano (Uruguay), _Memory of Fire_ (hemisphere)
Rosario Ferre + Jose Luis Gonzalez (both Puerto Rico/US) on Puerto Rico
3. FILM (chosen from the following):
Julie Dash, _Daughters of the Dust_ (African diaspora in US)
Tomas Gutierrez Alea, _Memories of Underdevelopment_ (Cuba)
Sharon Kinoshita
sharon_kinoshita@macmail
Office: 301 Oakes College
459-2395; 459-2813 (mess)
What are the social, political, and cultural stakes of the fascination exerted by history and historical fictions? In this course, we will examine the representation of the middle ages and early modernity in a range of nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts. The issues we will address include: representations of cultural contact; literary canons and the emergence of nationalism; links between nineteenth-century medievalism and Orientalism; periodization: constructing the divide between the middle ages and early modernity. In addition to primary readings and secondary theoretical essays, students should be prepared to do readings in history in order to build a sense of historical context.
Readings (subject to change): Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land; Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; Amin Maalouf, Leo Africanus; Gamal al-Ghitani, Zayni Barakat. Essays by Edward Said, Janet Abu-Lughod, Maria Menocal, Kathleen Biddick, Michael Ragussis, Oumelbanine Zhiri, Fernand Braudel, Fredric Jameson, and others.