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 will be explored in short stories of William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor (which may be found online.) An ever-present tension between a nostalgia for a South “before the war” and brutal expressions of racism and incest 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)
Ben Robertson, Red Hills and Cotton (1942)
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird (1960)
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968)
|
