ENGL 395 - Topics in Literature in English in Counter Traditions

Credits: 3-4

Spring 2022, ENGL 395-01: Topics in Literature in English in Counter Traditions: Women’s Memoir (3).  For all of American history, the rights of women have been under attack—our right to vote, to pursue education, to own property, to work and have careers, to make decisions about our bodies—and since 2016, rights and securities that have been guaranteed us for decades are back on the chopping block. In this class, we’ll read a selection of memoirs by women published between 2016 and 2021 and consider how they’re in conversation with the current social, political, economic, and environmental climates in the United States. (HL) Womer.

Winter 2022, ENGL 395A-01: Topics in Literature in English in Counter Traditions: Malcolm X (3). Prerequisite: Take one English course between 201 and 295, and one between 222 and 299. Malcolm X was one of the most significant civil and human rights activists in the world, and yet few among us in the United States remember or acknowledge the fullest scope of his legacy. This class will offer an in-depth study of his literary, cultural, political, and religious impact, from his encounters with his contemporaries (Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, Muhammad Ali, John Lewis, Yuri Kochiyama) to his effect on hip hop culture. Texts will include the Autobiography of Malcolm X, speeches by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, and other select primary and secondary sources. (HL) Kharputly.

Fall 2021, ENGL 395A-01: Topics in Literature in English in Counter Traditions: Unchoreographed Duets: The Drama of August Wilson and Suzan-Lori Parks (3). Prerequisite: Take one English course between 201 and 295, and one between 222 and 299. While the elastic lyricism of August Wilson’s dramas cannot accurately be termed “kitchen sink realism,” they—in many significant ways—are worlds separated from Suzan-Lori Parks’ experimental productions. These artists reflect the twin engines of post-Brown v. Board black theater as the older extends the efforts of Lorraine Hansberry and the younger refines the strategies of Adrienne Kennedy. Notwithstanding the differences in their creative works, these two playwrights ruled the last two decades of the twentieth century with a thoroughness that is unprecedented in black theater history. The Black Arts Movement may have propelled African American drama to widespread mainstream recognition; however, the string of Pulitzers and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards garnered by Wilson and Parks marks an unmatched degree of acclaim. Gauging their impact on American society between the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, this course will study Wilson’s entire oeuvre and all of Parks’ dramatic works up until 2006. (HL) Hill.

Fall 2021, ENGL 395B-01: Topics in Literature in English in Counter Traditions: Asian American Racial Formations (3). Prerequisite: Take one English course between 201 and 295, and one between 222 and 299. A study of fiction and nonfiction narratives across genre (novels, short stories, poetry, essays, film) to explore racial formations in contemporary Asian American writing. We will examine literary representations of race and racism through the lens of immigration and citizenship, faith and religion, mixed race identity, the model minority myth, the perpetual foreigner syndrome, and transracial adoption. Potential authors include: Ocean Vuong, Cathy Park Hong, Randa Jarrar, Celeste Ng, Viet Thanh Nguyen. (HL) Kharputly.