LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature University of Houston-Clear Lake

a. k. a. CRCL 5734: Cross-Cultural Texts in Dialogue

Summer 2003, 1st 5-wks session (27 May-30 June), M, T, Th 3-6pm; B1104 Instructor: Craig White        Office: B2529-8

Phone: 281 283 3380              email: whitec@uhcl.edu

Office Hours: Mondays & Thursdays, 12-1, 6-6:30, and by appointment

Course webpage: http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5734

 

Reading & Presentation Schedule

Tuesday, 27 May: introduction; poems by Kipling, Walcott; Jamaica Kincaid, "A Small Place" (handouts)

 

Thursday, 29 May: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, pp. 3-54 (up to part III); Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Norton Critical Edition of Heart of Darkness, pp. 251-262

 

·        Discussion starter(s) relating Achebe article to Heart of Darkness: Jessica Hayman, Robert Buffum

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “Koenig of the River” (379-82)

reader: Ashley Salter

respondent: Dendy Farrar

recorder: Charley Bevill

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “Two Poems on the Passing of Empire” (35)

reader: Rosalyn Mack

respondent: Ginger Hilton

recorder: Kayla Logan

 

Monday, 2 June: Conclude Heart of Darkness (54-76; complete); begin Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1-51; through chapter 6).

·        Dialogue between Heart of Darkness & Things Fall Apart:

leader: Greg Johnson

respondent: Kim Herrera

recorder: Kirby Johnson

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “A Far Cry from Africa” (17-18)

reader: Rebecca Stasney

respondent: Lisa C. James

recorder: Susie Gibson

 

Tuesday, 3 June: Things Fall Apart (52-161; through chapter 18)

·        Dialogue between Heart of Darkness & Things Fall Apart:

leader: Kayla Logan

respondent: Emily Masterson

recorder: Rebecca Stasney

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: from Midsummer, XXVII (pp. 486-87)

reader: Cynthia Garza

respondent: Ashley Salter

recorder: Greg Johnson

 

Thursday, 5 June: Things Fall Apart (through p. 209; complete); Kirsten Holst Petersen, "Problems of a Feminist Approach to African Literature" (handout); Walt Whitman, "Passage to India" (handout)

·        Discussion starter(s) relating Holst Petersen article to Things Fall Apart

 

·        Reading from Whitman's "Passage to India"

reader: Ginger Hilton

respondent: Rosalyn Mack

recorder: Kelley Gutridge

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: "Jean Rhys" (427-429)

reader: Charley Bevill

respondent: Jessica Hayman

recorder: Kim Herrera

 

Monday, 9 June: Midterm due. Begin E. M. Forster, A Passage to India (pp. 1-132; part I, "Mosque"); Edward W. Said, "Orientalism" (handout)

·        Discussion starter(s) relating Said article to A Passage to India

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “The Season of Phantasmal Peace” (464-65)

reader: Natalie Martinez

respondent: Mindi Swenson

recorder: April Davis

 

Tuesday, 10 June: Forster, A Passage to India (133-314; part II, "Caves");

·        Discussion starter(s) for Passage to India: Susie Gibson

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: "The Saddhu of Couva" (372-374)

reader: Robert Buffum

respondent: Greg Johnson

recorder: Dendy Farrar

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" (91)

reader: Krisann Muskievicz

respondent: Cynthia Garza

recorder: Emily Masterson

 

 

Thursday, 12 June: conclude A Passage to India (315-362; part III, "Temple"; complete); begin Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (pp. 1-33; chapter 1, "Paradise Pickles and Preserves")

(Thursday, 12 June continued)

·        Dialogue between Passage to India & The God of Small Things

leader: Lisa C. James

respondent: Krisann Muskievicz

recorder: Natalie Martinez

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: "There was one Syrian" (508-509)

reader:

respondent:

recorder:

 

Monday, 16 June: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (34-177; through chapter 8)

·        Dialogue between Passage to India & The God of Small Things

leader: April Davis

respondent: Kristy Pawlak

recorder: Ashley Salter

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: from Another Life: The Divided Child, ch. 1 (143-149)

reader: Emily Masterson

respondent: Robert Buffum

recorder: Kristy Pawlak

 

Tuesday, 17 June: The God of Small Things (178-321; complete); begin Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

·        Dialogue between Passage to India & The God of Small Things

leader: Mindi Swenson

respondent: Charley Bevill

recorder: Rosalyn Mack

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “Ruins of a Great House” (19-21)

reader: Kim Herrera

respondent: Kelley Gutridge

recorder: Robert Buffum

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “The Gulf” (104-108)

reader: Kelley Gutridge

respondent: Natalie Martinez

recorder: Ginger Hilton

 

Thursday, 19 June: Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (25-86; up to "The Journal"); Ian Watt, "Robinson Crusoe, Individualism, and the Novel" (handout)

·        Discussion starter(s) relating Watt article to Robinson Crusoe

 

 

(Thursday, 19 June continued)

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “Map of the New World” (413)

reader:

respondent:

recorder:

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “Exile” (100-102)

reader: Kristy Pawlak

respondent: Kayla Logan

recorder: Jessica Hayman

 

Monday, 23 June: Robinson Crusoe (complete, but especially 160 ("You are to understand that now I had . . . two plantations . . . ") through page 233 ("There was another tree . . . )

·        Discussion starter(s) for Robinson Crusoe

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “Crusoe’s Island” (68-72)

reader: Susie Gibson

respondent: Kirby Johnson

recorder: (no posting required)

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “Crusoe’s Journal” (92-4)

reader: Kirby Johnson

respondent: Susie Gibson

recorder: (no posting required)

 

Tuesday, 24 June: Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy (1-132; up to chapter titled "Lucy")

·        Discussion starter(s) for Lucy

 

·        Dialogue between Robinson Crusoe & Lucy:

leader: Jessica Hayman

respondent: Ginger Hilton

recorder: Cynthia Garza

 

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: “Preparing for Exile” (304)

reader:

respondent:

recorder:

 

Thursday, 26 June: Lucy (through 164; complete); review Jamaica Kincaid, "A Small Place" (handout from first class meeting)

·        Discussion starter for Kincaid, “Lucy” & “A Small Place”: Kirby Johnson

·        Dialogue between Robinson Crusoe & Lucy:

leader: Dendy Farrar

respondent: April Davis

recorder: Mindi Swenson

(Thursday, 26 June continued)

·        Poetry reading from Walcott: from The Estranging Sea, ch. 20, part 1 (271-73)

reader:

respondent:

recorder:

 

Monday, 30 June: final exam (timing depends on whether you take it in-class or by email; see above)

 

Wednesday, 2 July: grades due; final grade reports emailed before the 4th.