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This course covers writings from an American region known for its history of slavery and racism, its pronounced cooking styles, its strong sense of family, religion, and especially of place (the "land of cotton," "blue grass," "red hills and cotton," "Dixie") as well as a robust tradition of oral folk literature. Gothic and grotesque aspects of the South, especially in literature thematically devoted to brutal forms of racism and incest, and its nostalgia for a sometimes still idealized ante-bellum world of plantations will be explored. The following books are required. If possible, read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in advance.
Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) (also available online)
William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom (1936)
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird (1960)
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968) OR Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) OR Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) (both slave narratives available online). |
