This course is intended to cover “American Literature from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.” But what does it mean to study that period of American literature from Hawai’i, which, during that time, went from being a sovereign kingdom, to an (illegally annexed) U.S. territory, to a U.S. state? This class will be structured around significant historical and legal events during the period, both in Hawai’i and on the continent, such as the Fugitive Slave Act, Emancipation, the U.S. Dakota War, and the annexation of Hawai’i. We will read literary texts as well as legal and historical documents, particularly those written by and pertaining to Black and Indigenous writers, in order to think about the ways our literary and historical narratives mutually constitute each other. We will also work to dismantle the pervasive myth that this was a period of increasing freedom and modernization, by considering, for example, the ways in which the formal end of slavery led to the continued subjugation of African Americans by other means. Rather, we will consider the ways in which this moment was a time of consolidation of U.S. empire and its accompanying racial hierarchies. Readings will include some contemporary texts that extend the concerns of these historical texts into the present day.
Readings may include:
Liliʻuokalani Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen (1898)
Herman Melville Typee (1846)
Zitkala-Sa American Indian Stories (1921)
Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
Selected government and legal documents including: US Apology to Hawaiʻi (1993), US Apology to Native Americans (2009), the Emancipation Proclamation (1862), Reconstruction Amendments of the US Constitution (1865-1870), selected treaties between the US and Native Nations (1860s)
Layli Long Soldier Whereas (2017)
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979)
Short fiction by Kristiana Kahakauwila, Leanne Simpson
Poetry by Brandi Nālani McDougall
Assignments:
Assignments will include weekly discussion posts, a take-home midterm (with close reading and short essay components), an annotated bibliography, an essay connecting course readings to contemporary events, and a final portfolio of polished writing from the semester.