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

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

Spring 2008 Thurs  4-6:50 pm; B1219 Instructor: Craig White   Office: B2529-8

Phone: 281 283 3380  email: whitec@uhcl.edu Office Hours: Thurs 1-3; T 7-9

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

Reading & Presentation Schedule—spring 2008

Thursday, 17 January: introduction

Thursday, 24 January: 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.

·        Reading highlight relating Achebe article to Heart of Darkness

film highlight: Apocalypse Now

Thursday, 31 January: 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: Corrie Manigold

·        Poetry reading: W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”

reader: Danielle Lynch

·        Web review: Intertextuality

Thursday, 7 February: Things Fall Apart (52-161; through chapter 18)

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

reader: Cynthia Stone

·        Dialogue between Heart of Darkness & Things Fall Apart:

leader: Erica Shillings

·        Web review: Chinua Achebe, Amos Tutuola, Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Thursday, 14 February: Conclude discussion of Things Fall Apart (through p. 209; complete); Kirsten Holst Petersen, "Problems of a Feminist Approach to African Literature" (handout);

·        Dialogue between Things Fall Apart & Petersen, "Problems of a Feminist Approach to African Literature":

leader: Tanya Stanley

·        Web review: article on wife-beating in Africa (under “Miscellaneous”)

·        Web highlight (previous midterms)

Highlighter: Karen Daniel

Thursday, 21 February: Take-home midterm due within 72 hours of class meeting.  Walt Whitman, "Passage to India" (handout); begin Forster’s Passage to India, section I (“Mosque”), chapters 1-3, pp. 3-34.

·        Poetry reading from Whitman's "Passage to India"

Reader: Talli Ortiz

·        Web review: E. M. Forster sites

·        film highlight: Passage to India (d. David Lean, 1984)

Thursday, 28 February: Continue E. M. Forster, A Passage to India (pp. 35-212; through II, "Caves," chapter xx); Edward W. Said, "Orientalism" (handout)

·        Dialogue between A Passage to India & "Orientalism":

leader: Dawlat Yassin

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

reader: C. Vanessa Olivier

·        Web review: novel of manners; karma

Thursday, 6 March: complete Forster, A Passage to India (through part III, "Temple"; 212-362)

·        Reading highlight for Passage to India: Cory Owen

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

reader: Matt Richards

·        Web review: Partition of India

Thursday, 13 March: Begin Train to Pakistan. through page 116 (through Kalyug chapter, up to Mano Majra chapter)

·                    Web review: Punjab and the Sikhs; Khushwant Singh

·                    Dialogue between Passage to India & Train to Pakistan

leader: corey porter!

·        film highlight: White Teeth (part 1)
presenter: Stephanie Wilcox

First Research Posting Due before or during Spring Break

Thursday, 20 March: No meeting—Spring Holidays

Thursday, 27 March:  complete Train to Pakistan (through p. 181)

·        Dialogue between Passage to India & Train to Pakistan

leader: Larry Stanley

book highlights: Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine

presenter: Cory Owen

Thursday, 3 April: begin Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (25-86; up to "The Journal"); Ian Watt, "Robinson Crusoe, Individualism, and the Novel" (handout)

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

reader:

Web review: Defoe sites on webpage

·                    film highlight: White Teeth (part 2)

presenter: Allison Coyle

Thursday, 10 April: Robinson Crusoe (complete, but especially 160 ("You are to understand that now I had . . . two plantations . . . ") through page 233 ("There was another tree . . . )

·        Reading highlight for Robinson Crusoe: Dawlat Yassin

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

reader: Brouke M. Rose-Carpenter

·        Web highlight (final exams)

Highlighter: Danielle Lynch

Thursday, 17 April: Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy (1-83; up to chapter titled "Cold Hearts"); visit from M. A. candidate writing thesis on Lucy

·        Dialogue between Robinson Crusoe & Lucy:

leader: Jim Steinhilber

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

reader: Tanya Stanley

Thursday, 24 April: Lucy (through 164; complete)

·        Dialogue between Robinson Crusoe & Lucy:

leader: Karen Daniel

·        Web highlight (final exams)

Highlighter: Corrie Manigold

Thursday, 1 May: final exam (timing depends on whether you take it in-class or by email; see above)