LT965-7-AU-CO:
Continental Crossings: Caribbean and US Literature and Culture
2020/21
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Thursday 08 October 2020
Friday 18 December 2020
20
11 June 2020
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
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MA Q20E12 Modern and Contemporary Literature
It is becoming increasingly urgent to look at the literature form the United States in relation to the rest of the Americas, particularly because many of the best writers who currently live and/or publish in the United States originate from the Caribbean. the St Lucia-born Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott who used to live and work for part of the year in the United States is a case in point, but other prominent writers we will encounter in this module include: Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat, recipient of the 1999 American Book Award, the 2011 Langston Hughes Medal and 2009 MacArthur Fellow; Dominican-American Junot Diaz, recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and 2012 MacArthur Fellow.
In political science and international relations the Caribbean is often referred to as 'America's backyard' a disparaging definition which arrogantly conflates the United States with the entire continent and also implies that the United States 'owns' the Caribbean. On the other hand, Derek Walcott describes the United States as an 'aggressive democracy' and a 'dictatorship of mediocrity' where 'all are forced to be equal.' One of the characters of Haitian origin featured in the work of the African-Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat describes the experience of finally obtaining a passport and North American citizenship as 'standing in a firing line and finally getting a bulletproof vest'.
This module aims at looking at the ways in which writers from the United States imagine and represent the Caribbean and how writers from the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora imagine and represent the United States. Students will be able to deepen their knowledge of American literature by becoming acquainted with major poetic, fictional, non-fictional and dramatic works which will be put in dialogue with one another in order to delineate the broader context in which these texts can be better understood. A close reading of primary texts will be at the centre of our method as we will investigate crucial issues such as the difference between reality and the 'American Dream', what it means to be from the Americas, nationalism and transnationalism, the function of memory and imagination, migration and the formation of identity, the diasporic nature of blackness in the United States, and the question of language.
This module aims to foster students' critical thinking by inviting them to investigate American literatures from a broader perspective. It will enable students to become acquainted with the vibrant and diverse literature originating from the specific context of U.S.-Caribbean relations and to rethink the 'American' paradigm from a broader perspective.
After completion of the module students should be able to display a detailed knowledge of major twenty- and twenty-first- century texts about and/or from the United States and the Caribbean.
Primary Texts:
Jean-Robert Cadet Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American (1998)
Edwidge Danticat Krik? Krak! (1996)
Edwidge Danticat Brother I am Dying (2007)
Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) OR Junot Diaz Drown (1997)
Sugar (2008; dirs. Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck)
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990)
Derek Walcott The Ghost Dance (2002)
Derek Walcott The Prodigal (2005)
Module Supervisor's Research into Subject Area
This module is a logical extension of Professor Maria Cristina Fumagalli's interest in Caribbean literatures which she approaches in a comparative way. Maria Cristina is the author of three monographs on Caribbean studies: the first one, The Flight of the Vernacular: Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, and the Impress of Dante, analyzes Derek Walcott's and Seamus Heaney's conversation with Dante paying particular attention to their use of language; the second one, Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze (2009) reconfigures our understanding of modernity by approaching the issue from a Caribbean perspective; the third monograph, On the Edge: Writing the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic (2015) is a literary and cultural history which has the politics of borderline-crossing and the poetics of borderland-dwelling at its core and which also brings to the fore the experience of Dominican and Haitian writers who currently live and work in the United States like, for example Edwidge Danticat or Junot Díaz. Maria Cristina is also the editor of an issue of Agenda entirely devoted to Derek Walcott and the co-editor of two collections of essays which focus on gender and sexuality in the Caribbean (in particular on the figure of the 'cross-dresser') and engage with the idea of a literary geography of the 'American Tropics', an area that includes the Southern USA, the Atlantic littoral of Central America, the Caribbean islands and northern South America and which is central to this module. Maria Cristina has just completed a new monograph entitled Derek Walcott's Painters which was supported by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship.
Anticipated teaching delivery for 2020-21:
This module will be taught via weekly online seminars of two hours each. Each session will include online portfolio activities/student presentations; teacher-led discussion; general discussion.
- Walcott, Derek. (c2002) 'The Ghost Dance', in Walker and The Ghost Dance, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Danticat, Edwidge. (1996) Krik? Krak!, New York: Vintage Books. vol. Vintage contemporaries
- Walcott, Derek. (2005) The prodigal, London: Faber and Faber.
- Derek Walcott. (1974) 'The Caribbean: Culture or Mimicry?', in Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs: Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami. vol. 16 (1) , pp.3-13
- Payen, Nikol. (c2001) 'Something in the Water … Reflections of a People’s Journey', in The butterfly's way: voices from the Haitian dyaspora [sic] in the United States, New York: Soho Press., pp.66-82
- Danticat, Edwidge. (c2010) Create dangerously: the immigrant artist at work, Princeton: Princeton University Press. vol. The Toni Morrison lecture series
- Nikòl Payen. (2002) 'Lavalas: The Flood after the Flood', in Callaloo: The Johns Hopkins University Press. vol. 25 (3) , pp.759-771
- Díaz, Junot. (2007) The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao, London: Faber.
- Boden, Anna; Fleck, Ryan; Pérez Soto, Algenis; Rufino, Rayniel. (2008) Sugar, [London]: Axion.
- Kincaid, Jamaica. (c1990, 1991) Lucy, New York: Plume. vol. Plume contemporary fiction
- Danticat, Edwidge. (2008) Brother, I'm dying, New York: Vintage Books.
- (no date) Sugar (2008).
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Online Portfolio |
|
15% |
| Coursework |
Essay (4,000 words) |
|
80% |
| Practical |
Participation mark |
|
5% |
Additional coursework information
Primary Texts:
Jean-Robert Cadet Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American (1998)
Edwidge Danticat Krik? Krak! (1996)
Edwidge Danticat Brother I am Dying (2007)
Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) OR Junot Diaz Drown (1997)
Sugar (2008; dirs. Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck)
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990)
Derek Walcott The Ghost Dance (2002)
Derek Walcott The Prodigal (2005)
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Maria Fumagalli, email: mcfuma@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Maria Cristina Fumagalli
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk.
Telephone 01206 872626
Yes
No
No
Prof Duncan James Salkeld
University of Chichester
Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature
Available via Moodle
Of 599 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
599 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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