WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2013-2014       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Placing Memory, Rac(e)ing Form in Early American Writing
ENGL 275
Spring 2014
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: AFAM 275

As the age of the Middle Passage took shape and the rendition of Africans to the New World intensified, memory became one of the most invaluable and provocative tools with which enslaved and forcibly relocated people could achieve self-preservation, maintain their humanity, and negotiate the unpredictable and disorienting world of North America. The writings of early America that attend to matters of race and place shed light on the power of genre, the influence of piety and religiosity.

We will think together about the evocative connections between memory and place as we work with primary documents generated by and about people of African descent in 18th-century America. We also will attend to African American literary production from the 19th century to today that insistently links narratives of race and place to the deployments of literary forms. Finally, we will consider the rich intertextuality in these works that locates African American writing in the larger American, African, and Western literary traditions.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENGL-Literature)
Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available

Last Updated on DEC-10-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459