Here’s the syllabus and course schedule for the two World Literature survey classes I’m teaching this spring. Where will digital and material archives fit into lectures, assignments, and activities? Stay tuned!
ENGL 316K: Masterworks of Literature: World, Spring 2014
Instructor: Charlotte Nunes, charlotte.nunes@utexas.edu
Welcome to English 316K: Masterworks of Literature: World. This class will provide a broad survey of world literature from the late eighteenth century to the present. We will focus on Anglophone texts that emerge from and speak to specific colonial contexts. We will consider how literature has historically related to the social, political, legal, and economic institutions of imperialism. As we read, we will learn about each author’s biography as well as the history and critical conversations surrounding each text. In each class session we will practice close-reading skills through the analytical discussion of selected passages.
This course carries a Global Cultures Flag. For more information about this flag, visit http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/core/flags/global-cultures.
Required Readings:
- Excerpts from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (available on Canvas)
- Selections from Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature 1870-1918 (Oxford UP, 2009), edited by Elleke Boehmer
- Untouchable (Penguin Classics, 1990) by Mulk Raj Anand
- “Irish Revel” by Edna O’Brien (available on Canvas)
- Cathleen ni Houlihan by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory (available on Canvas)
- Welcome to our Hillbrow (Ohio UP, 2011) by Phaswane Mpe
- Onitsha Market Literature (available on Canvas)
- “Returning to Haifa” by Ghassan Kanafani (available on Canvas)
- “The Same Trouble” by Sajjad Zaheer (available on Canvas)
- “A Spoiled Man” by Daniyal Mueenuddin (available on Canvas)
- “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” by Katherine Anne Porter (available on Canvas)
- The Absolutely True Confessions of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown and Co., 2009) by Sherman Alexie
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Pantheon, 2004) by Marjane Satrapi
Course Schedule (subject to tweaks and changes!)
| M |
1/13 |
Welcome and introduction to ENGL 316K |
| W | 1/15 | For today, read pages 19-43 of the excerpt from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (available on Canvas) |
| M |
1/20 |
NO CLASS: MLK, Jr. Day |
| W |
1/22 |
For today, read the following in Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature 1870-1918: Edward Wilmot Blyden, from “The Aims and Methods of a Liberal Education for Africans,” pages 64-69; J.E. Casely Hayford, from Ethiopia Unbound, pages 361-368; and poems by Claude McKay, 369-377 |
| M |
1/27 |
For today, read the following in Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature 1870-1918: J.A. Froude, from The English in the West Indies, pages 112-120; and J.J. Thomas, from Froudacity, pages 120-125 |
| W |
1/29 |
For today, read the following in Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature 1870-1918: poems by Toru Dutt, from Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan, pages 69-72; poems by Sarojini Naidu, 311-316; Rabindranath Tagore, from Gitanjali (Song Offerings), pages 377-381; and W.B. Yeats, Introduction to Gitanjali (Song Offerings), pages 382-387 |
| M |
2/3 |
For today, read the following in Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature 1870-1918: Leonard Woolf, “Pearls and Swine,” pages 415-430 |
| W |
2/5 |
Exam #1 |
| M |
2/10 |
For today, read the “Preface” (by E.M. Forster) and pages 9-117 of Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand |
| W |
2/12 |
For today, read pages 117-157 of Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand |
| M |
2/17 |
For today, read “Irish Revel” by Edna O’Brien and Cathleen ni Houlihan by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory (available on Canvas) |
| W |
2/19 |
Archival Research Workshop |
| M |
2/24 |
Class visit to the Harry Ransom Center |
| W |
2/26 |
For today, read pages 1-62 of Welcome to our Hillbrow by Phaswane Mpe |
| M |
3/3 |
For today, read pages 62-124 of Welcome to our Hillbrow by Phaswane Mpe |
| W |
3/5 |
Onitsha Market Literature (available on Canvas) |
| M |
3/10 |
NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK! |
| W |
3/12 |
NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK! |
| M |
3/17 |
For today, read “Returning to Haifa” by Ghassan Kanafani (available on Canvas) |
| W |
3/19 |
In-class close-reading essay |
| M |
3/24 |
Exam #2 |
| W |
3/26 |
For today, read “The Same Old Trouble” by Sajjad Zaheer (available on Canvas) |
| M |
3/31 |
For today, read “A Spoiled Man” by Daniyal Mueenuddin (available on Canvas) |
| W |
4/2 |
For today, read “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” by Katherine Anne Porter (available on Canvas) |
| M |
4/7 |
For today, read pages 1-98 of The Absolutely True Confessions of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie |
| W |
4/9 |
For today, read pages 99-149 of The Absolutely True Confessions of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie |
| M |
4/14 |
For today, read pages 150-230 of The Absolutely True Confessions of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie |
| W |
4/16 |
For today, read the “Introduction” and pages 3-53 of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood |
| M |
4/21 |
For today, read 54-153 of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood |
| W |
4/23 |
In class today: screening and discussion of animated adaptation of Persepolis |
| M |
4/28 |
Exam #3 |
| W |
4/30 |
Last Day of Class; discussion/reflection; course evaluations |
archiveseducate 