Representing Slavery

2000

Readings:

William Andrews and Nellie McKay, Eds. Beloved: A Casebook

Octavia Butler, Wildseed

Maria Diedrich, et al. Black Imagination and the Middle Passage

Maryse Conde, I, Tituba the Black Witch of Salem

Charles Johnson, The Middle Passage

Gayl Jones, Corregidora

S.I. Martin, Incomparable World

Deborah McDowell and Arnold Rampersad, Eds. Slavery and the Literary Imagination

Herman Melville, Benito Cereno

Toni Morrison, Beloved

Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River

Ishmael Reed, Flight to Canada

Ashraf Rushdy, The Neo-Slave Narrative

Selected secondary readings

Films: Beloved, The Last Angel of History, Mandingo, Sankofa

Semester Schedule

Jan. 25 Selections from:

Halbwachs, On Collective Memory

Nora, Between Memory and History

White, The Content of the Form

Feb. 8 Fabre and O’Meally, from History and Memory in African American Culture

Carby, “The Historical Novel of Slavery” in McDowell and Rampersad

Diedrich, et al. “Introduction”

Pedersen, “Middle Passages”

Rushdy, “Introduction”

Van Deburg, from Slavery and Race in American Popular Culture

Feb. 15 Morrison, Beloved

Feb. 22 Andrews and McKay, Beloved: A Casebook

Christol, “The African American Concept of the Fantastic as Middle Passage” in Diedrich, et al.

Discuss film version of Beloved

Feb. 29 Reed, Flight to Canada

Spillers, “Changing the Letter” in McDowell and Rampersad

Mar. 7 Johnson, The Middle Passage

Melville, Benito Cereno

Mar. 14 Discussion of Sankofa

Mar. 21 Jones, Corregidora

Caruth, from History, Trauma, Memory

Spillers, “Mama’s Baby”

Mar 28 Discussion of Mandingo

Guerrero, from Framing Blackness

Van Deburg, from Slavery and Race in American Popular Culture

Apr. 4 Conde, I, Tituba the Black Witch of Salem

McCormick, “Return Passages” in Diedrich, et al

Apr. 11 Phillips, Crossing the River

Garvey, “Passages to Identity” in Diedrich, et al.

Julien, “Surviving” in Diedrich, et al.

Apr. 18 Martin, Incomparable World

Apr. 25 Butler, Wildseed

May 2 Screening and Discussion of The Last Angel of History

Eshun, from More Brilliant than the Sun

Dery, “Black to the Future”