LITR 5731: Seminar in American Multicultural Literature: Minority

Fall 2007, University of Houston-Clear Lake  Thurs. 4-6:50pm, Bayou 1302

Instructor: Craig White    Office: 2529-8 Bayou    Phone: 281 283 3380

Office Hours: T 2:30-3:30; Th 1-2; Th 7-8 & by appointment

email: whitec@uhcl.edu

Course webpage: http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5731

Reading and Meeting Schedule: (fall 2007)

Thursday, 23 August: Introduction, objectives, assignments. Declaration of Independence and other essential texts. Introduction to African American literature and “minority concept.”

African American literature

Thursday, 30 August: The Classic Slave Narratives, ed. H. L. Gates

Red-cover edition (Signet Classic): Introduction (pp. 1-14); Life of Olaudah Equiano (pp. 29-83); Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (pp. 339-429)

Yellow-cover edition (NAL): Introduction (pp. ix-xviii); Life of Olaudah Equiano (pp. 9-54); Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (pp. 255-326)

Poetry: Jupiter Hammon, "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penetential Cries"

Poetry reader / discussion leader: instructor

Discussion-starter: Philip Jones

Web-highlight: Gordon Lewis

Thursday, 6 September: continue Classic Slave Narratives; begin Song of Solomon, chapters 1 & 2 (through p. 55)

Red-cover edition (Signet Classic): Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 439-449; 470-487; 499-505; 516-528; 557-562; 567-571; 605-614; 635-637; 657-665.

Yellow-cover edition (NAL): Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 335-344; 360-374; 383-388; 397-407; 429-433; 437-440; 467-474; 490-492; 507-513. (App. 50 pages from Jacobs—welcome to read more!)

Song of Solomon chapters 1 & 2 (through p. 55)

Discussion-starter: Gary Pegoda

Poetry: Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise" (http://swansong2.tripod.com/poetry/still_i_rise.htm)

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Patricia (Pat) Dixon

Thursday, 13 September: Song of Solomon, chapters 3-9, pp. 56-216 (complete part 1, up to part 2)

Discussion-starter: Cindy Goodson

Web-highlight (midterms): Sonya Prince

Poetry: Amiri Baraka, "An Agony. As Now."

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Jennifer Rieck

Thursday, 20 September: complete Song of Solomon (through part 2, through p. 337)

Discussion-starter: Leah Guillory

Poetry: Langston Hughes, "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)"; "Dream Variations"

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Cindy Goodson

American Indian Literature

Thursday, 27 September: Midterm due by email. North American Indian Origin Stories (handout); begin Black Elk Speaks: chapters I-V (pp. 1-66); chapter VII (77-91).

Discussion-starter: Corey Porter

Poetry: Linda Hogan, "November"

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Rosa Ortiz

Thursday, 4 October: Black Elk Speaks: chapters VII-XIII (pp. 92-161); chapter XVII-end including appendices (pp. 194-298); selections from The Black Elk Reader (handout)

Web highlight (research projects): Sonya Prince

Poetry: Peter Blue Cloud, "Crazy Horse Monument"

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Gary Pegoda

Thursday, 11 October: Provisional Research proposal due. Love Medicine through “A Bridge” (ends on p. 180)

Discussion-starter: Jennifer Rieck

Web-highlight (research projects): Patricia (Pat) Dixon

Thursday, 18 October: Love Medicine (complete)

Discussion-starter: Kathleen Anderson

Web highlight (research projects): Jennifer Jones

Poetry: Louise Erdrich, “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways”

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Kathleen Anderson

Mexican American Literature

Thursday, 25 October: "History of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531"; Bless Me, Ultima through p. 105 or chapter Diez

Discussion-starter: Martin D. Briones

Poetry: Jimmy Santiago Baca, "Ancestor"

(Look under "Poems" on Baca's homepage: http://www.swcp.com/~baca/)

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Corey Porter

Thursday, 1 November: Bless Me, Ultima (complete)

Discussion-starter: Fernando Trevino

Web highlight (either research projects or final exams): Gary Pegoda

Thursday, 8 November: Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek, through p. 83 (i. e., through “Never Marry a Mexican”)

Discussion-starter: Rosa Ortiz

Poetry: Pat Mora, "Depression Days"

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Martin D. Briones

Thursday, 15 November: Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek (complete)

Discussion-starter: Patricia (Pat) Dixon

Poetry: Walt Whitman, "In Paths Untrodden"

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Gordon Lewis

Poetry: W. H. Auden, "Lullabye"

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Leah Guillory

Thursday 22 November: No meeting—Thanksgiving Holiday

Thursday, 29 November: The Best Little Boy in the World. Research Project Due via email. 

Discussion-starter: Jennifer Jones

Web-highlight (final exams): Fernando Trevino

Poetry: Frank O'Hara, "My Heart"

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Philip Jones

Thursday, 6 December: Final exam