Archiving America
ENGL 341
Spring 2021
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01
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Sounds, ephemera, books, letters, classified documents, feelings. All of these materials can constitute an archive and, in turn, shape what we know and don't know. This class will ask: What is an archive, and how does it shape the production and suppression of knowledge? We will study authors who illustrate the importance of archiving experiences and events across scale, from pandemics to hunger, genocide to day-to-day survival, environmental disaster to the smallest of environmental shifts. We will also consider the politics of the archive, given that the same archive can yield vastly different interpretations, depending on what one's priorities are. Throughout the course, we will closely attend to the archive's many purposes. It is a way to cope with catastrophe, an instrument through which nations and empires sanitize the past, and a method for ethically imagining what has been lost and what is yet to be found. Finally, to consider archival concepts alongside practice, we will familiarize ourselves with the language and key concepts of archival processes and work with Wesleyan's Special Collections and Archives. Students will have the option of delving into their own materials or the University's archives to undertake projects that illuminate something valuable about the archive. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENGL) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Authors, artists, and texts we may study include:
Nicholson Baker, DOUBLE FOLD
Sarah Broom, THE YELLOW HOUSE
Ann Cvetkovich, AN ARCHIVE OF FEELINGS
Jacques Derrida, ARCHIVE FEVER
Saidiya Hartman, SELECTED WRITINGS
Zora Neale Hurston, SELECTED WRITINGS
Valeria Luiselli, LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE
Ocean Vuong, ON EARTH WE'RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS
Karen Tei Yamashita, I HOTEL
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Examinations and Assignments:
2 papers, final project. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literatures of Difference and Theory requirement in the English major and contributes to the American Literature, Race & Ethnicity, and Theory & Literary Forms concentrations. It also fulfills the Research option for Honors thesis writers.
Class of 2023 and beyond: This course fulfills the Theory and American Literature requirements of the English major. |
| Instructor(s): Nguyen,Marguerite Times: ..T.R.. 01:00PM-02:20PM; Location: ONLINE; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 2 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 2 | 1st Ranked: 2 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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