In this course, we explore how elements of fiction in short stories, novels, and poetry both document and provide roots of resistance, civil disobedience, revolution, and social change. What is resistance? How does it live in fiction? How do writers portray resistance to everyday and systemic racism, heteropatriarchy, homophobia, imperialism? What social change has fiction helped foster in the past? How does fiction influence us now? As we engage texts by writers such as Toni Morrison, Leslie Marmon Silko, Haunani-kay Trask, and Audre Lorde, we will be crafting answers to these questions.
The reading materials of this course engage intersectional resistance narratives centered on land, water, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity. Throughout the semester, students will engage these narratives through in-class discussions alongside formal and informal writing assignments, all of which are aimed at developing students’ critical and creative skills for engaging resistance in fiction. Students will develop their skills as critical readers and writers in order to dig deeper into the major themes of this class.
Students will be responsible for weekly reading responses as well as more informal in-class freewrites. These responses are scaffolded alongside two shorter writing assignments that are, in turn, preparation for the midterm and final papers.
Key Texts
- Sia Figiel, where we once belonged
- Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
- Toni Morrison, Beloved
- Zamora Linmark, Rolling the R’s
- Shawna Yang Ryan, Water Ghosts
Class Requirements and Expectations (assignments & attendance/participation)
Assignments:
- Weekly reading responses (250 words minimum)
- Writing Assignment 1: Literature Critique (2 pages)
- Midterm Paper (6 pages)
- Midterm exam (in class)
- Writing Assignment 2: Literature Review (2 pages)
- Final Paper (6 pages)
- Final Take-Home exam
Attendance Policy
- The first three absences, including excused ones (i.e. a doctor’s note or a documented family emergency) will not count against you.
- Each absence, starting with the fourth and regardless of the excuse, will result in your overall course grade being dropped by 3 overall points. For example, if your overall grade was an 93 (A-) and you missed 5 classes (2 past the maximum) during the semester, your overall grade would end up as an 87 (B).
- Being absent eight or more times, regardless of excuse, will result in an automatic F.
- At the beginning of each class, I will send around an attendance sheet. If you arrive to class after it has been circulated, this counts as being late. Being late and/or leaving early twice counts as one absence.