This course will introduce
students to a wide range of novels and poetry written in English throughout the
course of the 20th and 21st centuries, but not confined
to England and America. We will
place our texts in their historical, cultural, and political contexts, and
examine how literature represents marginalized figures and non-hegemonic perspectives,
paying special attention to issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and
species. Students will leave the
course with a good sense of specific literary movements that took place after
1900 and various interpretative frameworks for the study of literature.
Required Texts:
·
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
·
Jean Toomer, Cane
·
James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
·
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
·
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
·
Margaret Atwood,
The Handmaid’s Tale
·
Jamaica Kincaid,
Lucy
·
Paul Auster, Timbuktu
·
Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie, Americanah
·
Poetry and other
readings available on Laulima
Requirements:
·
Close readings
·
2 shorter papers
(5-6 pages)
·
Longer final
research paper (7-8 pages)
·
Group
presentation in which you will lead class discussion for one class period
·
Attendance and
participation