ENG 330-01 - Studies in American Prose I

4 credits (Spring)

Manifest Displacements: Piracy, Slavery and the Limits of Self Possession. In the 18th century, literary or maritime piracy was as common in the transatlantic commercial world as were barnacles on hulls shipwrecked along the Spanish Main. By 1820, Congress defined the slave trade itself as a form of piracy. Shift the word “pirate” to its synonym “freebooter,” and by the mid-19th century the seafaring pirate becomes the land-grabbing filibuster. Even more recent avatars of the pirate are the data hacker, the patent pirate, and, potentially, DNA data providers. These intersecting modes of piracy will enable us to look askance at American cultural production, the better to recognize the constitutive role that various forms of theft and their disciplinary correctives continue to play in the constitution of American selves. Course readings may include accounts of 18th century pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read; a “memoir” by Jean Lafitte; James Fenimore Cooper’s The Red Rover; Lord Byron’s The Corsair; Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno”; R.L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island; Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; William Gibson’s Neuromancer; Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; and Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous. We will conclude with a viewing of Paul Greenglass’s 2013 film, Captain Phillips. Grade to be determined by class discussion, collaborative group work, one mid-length paper and the equivalent of a 15-page final research project. N.B.: this course has been designed and scheduled to be team-taught with Prof. Kapila’s ENG 395. Since both classes will convene together for approximately ten class sessions, we recommend that you leave open whichever seminar slot is not taken by the course you enrolled in (if MW, reserve TTH, and vice-versa). We have also designed these courses to complement each other but to be different enough in content and approach so as to leave open the possibility of enrolling in both courses simultaneously.

Prerequisite: ENG 227, ENG 228, ENG 229, ENG 231, ENG 232, or ENG 273.
Instructor: Andrews