English 40-2 - Fall, 2020

Introductory Topics in Literature

Topic: TO BE ANNOUNCED

 

Class Information

Instructor: Hulbert, Annette
CRN: 32009
Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
GE Areas: Writing Experience

Description

Topic: Survival Stories

This course will explore stories of survival in the seventeenth and eighteenth-century Atlantic world, focusing particularly on how the history of empire is linked to these perilous journeys. We will draw from the burst of new scholarship on rethinking the traditional ?rise of the novel? narrative in imperial, oceanic, and global contexts and develop interpretive frameworks for the Atlantic world?s changing relationship to commerce and exploration. Questions we will ask in the class include: How is ?survival? defined in these texts? Why were stories of survival so popular during this period, and how did readers imagine the risks and dangers associated with Atlantic crossings? How do we read the silences in the archives, or grapple with the stories erased by the transatlantic slave trade? What formal tropes of survival narratives emerge in our current moment?

Grading

Grading:
Short writing assignments and quizzes (25%)
One 4-5 page paper (25%)
One 6-7 page paper (35%)
Final (15%)

Texts

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Olaudah Equiano
Oroonoko, Aphra Behn
The Tempest, William Shakespeare
Online selections