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

Wagner College, Spring 2004

 

Dr. Pranav Jani                                                                      Office Hours: M 10:30-12:30, 1:30-3

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

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

(718) 390-3362                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Course Description:

 

English 111 will examine 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

Zee Edgell, Beka Lamb

Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, A Grain of Wheat

George Orwell, Animal Farm

Solomon, Barbara, ed.  Other Voices, Other Vistas

 

Assignments and Grading

Participation:                                                           20%

6 Response Papers (1-2 pages):               30%

Midterm:                                                                    20%

Final Exam:                                                             30%

 

 

Course Outline

 

Weeks 1-3: Thinking Critically

Th 1/22                 Introduction

 

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

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Columbus_PeoplesHx.html

Th  1/29               NO CLASS

 

T  2/3                     George Orwell, Animal Farm 

Th  2/5                  Orwell, Animal Farm

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

 

Weeks 4-5: Imperialism and Progress

T  2/10                  [Many of the Tecumseh links are out of commission.  These should work (updated 2/7) but you should also look around and find whatever speeches you can]

Brief biography of Tecumseh,

http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_038300_tecumseh.htm

Tecumseh, from speech at Vincennes (1810)

http://www.nationalcenter.org/Tecumseh.html  (or check via www.nationalcenter.org/HistoricalDocuments.html)

longer version (but not dependable): http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Cove/8286/harrison.html

Tecumseh, “Words of Fire” (1811) – (this link goes on and off so check at different times)

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

Hinmahtoo Yahlatkekeht (“Chief Joseph”), Surrender speech

http://glenavalon.com/fightnomore.html

 

Th  2/12                [links updated 2/7; search authors and titles if they still don’t work]

Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

                                    http://douglassarchives.org/doug_a10.htm

                                   Thomas Jefferson, the original draft of the “Declaration of Independence”:

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

Thomas Jefferson, “On Slavery”

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

Thomas Paine, “African Slavery in America”

http://www.thomaspaine.org/Archives/afri.html

 

T 2/17                    NO CLASS – Monday classes

Th  2/19               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

 

Weeks 6-7: No Middle Ground

T  2/24                  Debate: The Price of Progress

Th  2/26                Khushwant Singh, “The Wog” (Other Voices)

 

T  3/2                     Nadine Gordimer, “Africa Emergent” (Other Voices)

Th 3/4                    George Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”: http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/shoot.htm
Wes Cecil, Pranav Jani, Stacy Takacs, “India Is(n’t)” (handout)

 

Weeks 8-10: Growing Pains

T     3/9                   Zee Edgell, Beka Lamb (Chapters 1-14)

Th  3/11                Edgell, Beka Lamb (Chapters 15-26)

 

MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT – New due date: March 30         

SPRING BREAK

 

T 3/23                    Ngugi, A Grain of Wheat

Th 3/25                 Ngugi, A Grain

 

T 3/30                    Ngugi, A Grain

Th 4/1                    Ngugi, A Grain

                                   

 

Weeks 11-13: Postcolonial Encounters

T  4/6                     NO CLASSES

Th  4/8                  Ama Ata Aidoo, “For Whom Things Did Not Change” (handout)

Bessie Head, “The Collector of Treasures” (Other Voices)

 

T     4/13                Mahasweta Devi, “Dhowli” (Other Voices)

Th  4/15                Hanif Kureishi, “My Son the Fanatic” (handout)

 

T  4/20                  Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place

Th  4/22                Film: Stephanie Black, Life and Debt

 

Week 14: Critical Thinking II

T 4/27                    Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam”:
                                    http://www.illuminingtalks.org/humanitarian/martin_luther_king/beyondvietnam         

Th  4/29               OPEN DATE

 
T     5/4                   Conclusion
 

FINAL: Due May 12, 12 noon, to pjani@wagner.edu as MS Word attachment

Final Exam Online