ENG 330-01 & 02 - Studies in American Prose

4 credits (Fall Term 1 & Term 2)

When Karen and Barbara Fields connect racecraft to witchcraft, they do so on the assumption that we can understand the “processes of meaning that make both plausible.” This course will take seriously the notion that these “processes of meaning” shift over time, and yet, as we shall see, there are some rather tenacious sticking points. We will trace out some of the changes and sticking points as they arise in the following six novels and two films: Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (1986); Lydia Maria Child’s A Romance of the Republic (1867); William Dean Howells’ An Imperative Duty (1891); Charles Chesnutt’s The House Behind the Cedars (1901); Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929); and Philip Roth’s The Human Stain (2000); also the film Imitation of Life (1934), dir. John M. Stahl; and, if released in time, Passing (2020), dir. Rebecca Hall. We will supplement deep engagement with the Fields sisters’ Racecraft with theoretical essays on fetishism by Emily Apter and William Pietz; canonical explorations of scapegoating by Kenneth Burke and René Girard; and several legal essays informed by Critical Race Theory. Grades to be determined by class discussion, group collaborations, a reading journal, a mid-semester paper (6 pages), and a final 15-page research paper.

Prerequisite: ENG 227, ENG 228, ENG 229, ENG 231, ENG 232, or ENG 273.
Note: This 4 credit course is being conducted for the 20-21 academic year across the Fall 1 and Fall 2 terms at 2 credits each term.
Instructor: Andrews