Pranav Jani Office Hours: W 3-6, or by appointment

Parker Hall 302 http://www.wagner.edu/faculty/users/pjani

pjani@wagner.edu http://webboard.wagner.edu/~pjani

(718) 390-3362

English 111 (W, I) World Literature: Writing and Imperialism

Wagner College, Spring 2003

English 111 examines writing that has developed under various forms of imperialism since the nineteenth century. Imperialism – a system in which richer and more powerful countries dominate over weaker ones – has forcefully yoked together the histories of Asians, Africans, Europeans, and indigenous peoples through slavery, colonization, and economic coercion. We will be reading literature that depicts the various conflicts generated by imperialism – but from the perspective of those oppressed by imperialism. In the process, therefore, we will learn to hear the voices of the silenced and to question our own notions of the boundaries between West and non-West, between “us” and “them.”

Required Texts

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

George Orwell, Animal Farm

Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Solomon, Barbara, ed. Other Voices, Other Vistas

Course Packet for English 111, Spring 2003 (CP)

Assignments and Grading

Participation: 15%

Weekly Responses: 10%

Paper #1 (2-3 pages): 20%

Paper #2 (4-5 pages): 25%

Final Exam 30%

Be sure to review by course policies at www.wagner.edu/faculty/users/pjani/Course%20Policies.htm

Course Outline

Weeks 1-2: Critical Thinking I

F 1/17 Introduction

M 1/20 NO CLASS – MLK Day

W 1/22 Orwell, Animal Farm

F 1/24 Orwell, Animal Farm

Weeks 3-4: Imperialism and Progress

M 1/27 Howard Zinn, “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress”

http://www.horizons.k12.mi.us/~aim/papers/zinncolumbus.html

* Zinn, “The Others”: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/The_Others.html

W 1/29 Tecumtha (“Tecumseh”), speech to William H. Harrison

http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Cove/8286/harrison.html

Tecumtha, Letter to William H. Harrison

http://www.jmu.edu/madison/tecumseh/letterharrison.htm

Hinmahtoo Yahlatkekeht (“Chief Joseph”), Surrender speech

http://glenavalon.com/fightnomore.html

* Tecumtha, For a Pan-Indian Alliance

http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Cove/8286/history4.html

F 1/31 Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu/doug_a10.htm

M 2/3 Jefferson, the original draft of the “Declaration of Independence”:

http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/AMERICA/DECLAR.HTM

Jefferson on slavery: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/slavery.htm

Paine on slavery: http://thomaspaine.org/archive/afri.html

W 2/5 Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden”

http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/kipling/kipling.html

Sixto Lopez and Thomas Patterson, “The Filipinos Will Not ‘Take Up the White Man’s Burden’”: http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/kipling/lopez_wmb.html

F 2/7 Ignatieff, “The American Empire: The Burden” (CP)

* King, “Beyond Vietnam”: http://www.illuminingtalks.org/humanitarian/martin_luther_king/beyondvietnam

Weeks 5-8: Colonial Encounters

M 2/10 Debate: The Price of Progress

W 2/12 Achebe, Things Fall Apart

F 2/14 Achebe, Things Fall Apart

M 2/17 – NO CLASSES

T 2/18 – Monday classes

Achebe, Things Fall Apart

W 2/19 Achebe, Things Fall Apart

F 2/20 Achebe, Things Fall Apart

M 2/24 Gordimer, “Africa Emergent” (Other Voices)

W 2/26 Gordimer, “Africa Emergent”

F 2/28 Singh, “The Wog” (Other Voices)

DUE: Paper #1

M 3/3 Singh, “The Wog”

W 3/5 Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”: http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/shoot.htm

F 3/7 Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”

SPRING BREAK

Weeks 9-10: Colonialism and Gender

M 3/17 Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

W 3/19 Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

F 3/21 Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

M 3/24 Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

W 3/26 Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

F 3/28 Debate: Did the Afghan War Liberate Women?

See: http://www.wagner.edu/faculty/users/pjani/

DUE: Paper #2

Weeks 11-13: Postcolonial Encounters

M 3/31 Aidoo, “For Whom Things Did Not Change” (CP)

W 4/2 Aidoo, “For Whom Things Did Not Change”

F 4/4 Head, “The Collector of Treasures” (Other Voices)

M 4/7 Devi, “Dhowli” (Other Voices)

W 4/9 OPEN DATE

F 4/11 Kureishi, “My Son the Fanatic” (CP)

M 4/14 Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

W 4/16 Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

F 4/18 Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Week 14: Imperialism Today

M 4/21 – NO CLASSES

W 4/23 Hammad, “First Writing Since” (CP)

F 4/25 Discussion: Black Hawn Down (time and place TBA)

Cecil, Jani, Takacs, “India Is(n’t)” (CP)

Week 15: Critical Thinking II

M 4/28 King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (CP)