This seminar is designed to provide English majors with intensive and closely supervised work in critical reading and writing. Although sections of the course may address any literary question, period, or genre, they all provide an introduction to critical and methodological problems in literary studies.

In this course, we will read the self-authored works of African American and Afro-Briton enslaved and formerly enslaved people, as well as listen for enslaved voices in the archive of Atlantic slavery. We will begin by reading the canonical narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Mary Prince, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. Then, we will read in the other genres used by enslaved people: the petition, the letter, the poem. Finally, we will turn to the archive to see how enslaved voices are alternatively silenced, mocked, and disciplined, and discover what can be gleaned from these archival traces, and how. In this section of the course, we will read natural histories, court transcripts, and laws. Throughout, we will read in the scholarship of slavery studies to build a critical framework around these texts, to offer us new possibilities for reading and writing, and to engage with as we form our own textual interpretations. Assignments include an annotated bibliography, and a final paper staging a dialogue between you and other literary critics.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills