Far from being writers—founders of their own place, heirs of the peasants of earlier ages now working on the soil of language, diggers of wells and builders of houses—readers are travelers; they move across lands belonging to someone else, like nomads poaching their way across fields they did not write, despoiling the wealth of Egypt to enjoy it themselves. ― Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life
For me this space of radical openness is a margin — a profound edge. Locating oneself there is difficult yet necessary. It is not a ‘safe’ place. One is always at risk. One needs a community of resistance. — bell hooks, “Choosing the Margin as a Space for Radical Openness”
UNIT 1
Week 0 Introductions
Thursday, 2/7
- Robert Frost: Mending Wall
- Gloria Anzaldua: sel. Borderlands/La Frontera — To Live in the Borderlands; Ch. 1 The Homeland/Aztlan; Ch. 7 Towards a New Consciousness
- DUE: Reading Response #1
Week 1 “The Border
Tuesday, 2/12
- Javier Zamora: Unaccompanied (3-37)
- DUE: Reading Response
Thursday, 2/14
- Javier Zamora: Unaccompanied (41-91)
- FILM — Cary Joji Fukunaga: Sin Nombre
- DUE: Film Response
Week 2 Transnational Poetics
Tuesday, 2/19
- Gary Soto: “Mexicans Begin Jogging”
- Ada Limon: “The Contract Says: We’d Like the Conversations to be Bilingual”
- Li Young Lee: “Persimmons” / “Immigrant Blues”
- Marilyn Chin: “Turtle Soup”
- DUE: Reading Response
Thursday, 2/21
- Agha Shahid Ali: “I See Chile in My Rearview Mirror”
- Natalie Diaz: “My Brother My Wound” / “From the Desire Field”
- Naomi Shihab Nye: “Jerusalem” / “Blood” / “Darling” / “Arabic”
- DUE: Essay 1 Intro
Week 3 Transgressive Identities
Tuesday, 2/26
- Adrienne Rich: “What Kinds of Times Are These” / “Diving into the Wreck“
- Elizabeth Bishop: “Chemin de Fer” / “In the Waiting Room” / “Questions of Travel”
- gwendolyn brooks: “a song in the front yard”
- Claude McKay: “America”
- Allen Ginsberg: “America”
- DUE: Reading Response / Peer Review Form
Thursday, 2/28
- Ocean Vuong: “Self-Portrait as Exit Wounds”
- Mark Doty: “Charlie Howard’s Descent”
- Max Ritvko: “Poem to My Litter”
- Danez Smith: “The 17 Year-Old & the Gay Bar” / alternate names for black boys
- Morgan Parker: “If You Are Over Staying Woke“
- DUE: Write 1 poem (in response to 1 poem from the readings)
CLASS DINNER at ROSS COMMONS RESIDENCE, 26 BLINN LANE @ 6pm
Friday, 3/1
- DUE: Essay 1, Draft 1
Week 4 Visual Forms and Intertextuality
Tuesday, 3/5
- Alison Bechdel: Fun Home
- DUE: Reading Response
Thursday, 3/7
- Alison Bechdel: Fun Home
*CONFERENCES
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UNIT 2
Week 5 Human/Animal Metamorphoses
Tuesday, 3/12
- Justin Torres: We the Animals
- DUE: Reading Response
Thursday, 3/14
- Justin Torres: We the Animals
- FILM — Werner Herzog: Grizzly Man
- DUE: Film Response
Friday, 3/15
- DUE: Essay 1, Revision by 3pm (box outside my office)
Week 6 Boundaries of Self
Tuesday, 3/19
- Toni Morrison: Sula
- DUE: Reading Response
Thursday, 3/21
- Toni Morrison: Sula
- DUE: Essay 2 Intro
SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Week 7
Tuesday, 4/2
- Toni Morrison: Sula
Thursday, 4/4
- Toni Morrison: Sula
Friday, 4/5
- DUE: Essay 2, draft 1 @ 11am
Week 8 Queer Expatriation
Tuesday, 4/9
- James Baldwin: Giovanni’s Room
- DUE: Reading Response
Thursday, 4/11
- James Baldwin: Giovanni’s Room
- DUE: Peer Review Form
*CONFERENCES
Week 9
Tuesday, 4/16
- LIBRARY RESEARCH SESSION TBA
- James Baldwin: Giovanni’s Room
- DUE: Scholarly Sources Exercise
Thursday, 4/18
- James Baldwin: Giovanni’s Room
- FILM — John Schlesinger: Midnight Cowboy
- DUE: Film Response / Essay 2, Revision
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UNIT 3
Week 10 Black Art, Myths of Citizenship, and Genre-Crossing
Tuesday, 4/23
- Claudia Rankine: Citizen
- Interview with Claudia Rankine: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/27/claudia-rankine-poet-citizen-american-lyric-feature
- DUE: Reading Response
Thursday, 4/25
- Claudia Rankine: Citizen
- FILM — Spike Lee: Do the Right Thing // optional: Beyonce: Lemonade
- DUE: Film Response
Week 11 Expanding the Dialogue
Tuesday, 4/30
- Clauda Rankine: Citizen
- Amiri Baraka: “Black Art”
- Mark Doty: “In Two Seconds“
- Danez Smith: “juxtaposing the black boy & the bullet“ / “not an elegy for Mike Brown“
- Tony Hoagland: “The Change” / Rankine’s Response / Hoagland’s Letter
- DUE: Essay 3 Question WITH Annotated Bibliography
Thursday, 5/2
- Clauda Rankine: Citizen
- FILM — Raoul Peck/James Baldwin: I Am Not Your Negro
- DUE: Film Response
Week 12 Conclusions
Tuesday, 5/7
- Presentations (Creative Projects)
Thursday, 5/9
- Presentations (Creative Projects)
- DUE: Final Portfolio (including Essay 3) & Self-Reflection; Post Creative Project to blog
*Additional Class To Be Scheduled for Presentations