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“Empires of Ambiguity” looks at early North American literature and culture from the vantage point of ambiguity studies and an interest in the evolution of strong, future-oriented partnerships across religious, cultural, economic and gendered divides. We will observe how literary ambiguity (contradictions, gaps and silences, polysemies, things left unsaid, unclear formulations…) often express unstable selves, caught at crossroads of cultures, religions, and races. We will discuss a selection of texts from the margins (John Marrant, Armand Lanusse, Nicolas Said, Lucy Terry Prince etc.) as well as new perspectives on canonical texts (Cotton Mather, Marie de l’Incarnation, Anne Hutchison, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, William Apess, Emily Dickinson), mostly from North America, with transatlantic and inter-American forays into Europe, North Africa, and South America. Our time frame covers early modernity until the 19th century. Participants are expected to read intensively, making use of standard anthologies of North American literature available in the library and to develop a research of their own that will allow them to develop a first independent research project to be presented to the group (and potential international visitors). To understand the relevance of the issues discussed in the texts, we will relate them to Sustainable Developments Goal 17 on partnerships for sustainable development (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/globalpartnerships/).
This class will allow students to improve their Information Literacy, Analysis, Oral and Written Communication, and Teamwork competences. |
