123250 AR Literature Course - Literature 1/2 (MA) American/North American & Cultural Studies (2019W)

Excerpts from relevant narratives in prose and verse and several short stories are contained in a Reader to be acquired at Copy Studio.
A reserve shelf (Handapparat) with the complete texts to be considered, with some material on the individual authors concerned with the crossing of the border and involved in the cultural circulation as well as some relevant studies will be accessible on the upper floor of the departmental library. A list of the topics for short papers will be announced on my departmental homepage, and volunteers for the first presentations in class are invited to contact me before the beginning of the course.
Among the topics will be the following :
1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: The Epic of Love, Separation and Expatriation. Consider the historical context of ethnic cleansing and the literary presentation of the romance.
2. Joshua Mc Carter Simpson, “Away to Canada”: Fact and Fiction of the Route to Freedom of Fugitive Slaves. Consider briefly the historical legal and political context (the Compromise of 1850, including the Fugitive Slave Law).
3. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Fact and Fiction of the Underground Railroad. Consider the stages in the flight of the African American slaves George and Eliza to Canada.
4. Uncle Tom’s Cabin The Contemporary Impact of the Narrative with the two Major Strands. Consider also the reception of the novel abroad.
5. Kate Chopin, “Desirée’s Baby”: Louisiana’s Multi-ethnic Culture as Reflected in Chopin’s Stories in Bayou Folks.
6. Flannery O’Connor, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” : Intrusion and Exit from the Southern Foothills: Grotesque Violence in the Piedmont Region of the South.
7. Eudora Welty, “Shower of Gold”: Volubility and Irrepressible Vitality in Some of Welty’s Stories.
8. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! : The Narrative Mediation of Obsessions in the Opening of Faulkner’s Masterpiece.
9. Jack Hodgins, “Every Day of His Life” and “White Smoke Rising” : Echoes of Classic Southern Fiction (by Faulkner, O’Connor and Welty).
10. Jack Hodgins, “Galleries”: A Pilgrimage to a Literary Shrine as a Way towards Literary Emancipation.
11. Alice Munro, “Epilogue: The Photographer” : Instances of Dialogues with Foreign Writers /Artists in Munro’s Early Fiction.
12. Elizabeth Spencer, “Sharon”: Relationships between the Races and Social Regulations in the Deep South. Consider their perception in some of the “Marilee” stories by the author.
13. Elizabeth Spencer, “I, Maureen”: The Experience of Estrangement and the Search for a New Identity in the Canadian Metropolis.
14. Clark Blaise, “The Salesman’s Son Grows Older”: Nomadic Lives as Perceived by the Protagonist-Narrator.
15. Clark Blaise, “South”: The Experience of Dislocation and Alienation. Consider the process of fictionalization in some of the “Thibidault” stories by the author.
16. Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes: Consider selected episodes from the narrative, especially the move of the protagonist Aminata Diallo to Canada, and consider also the historical context.