Literary Histories (200-0-20)
Topic
Journeys, Exile, Migration, and Hope
Instructors
Wendy L Wall
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L28: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
How does longing for home-- a place of belonging-- shape our sense of identity and community? How do writers as different as Homer and Octavia Bulter meditate on the experience of displacement as well as possibilities for new kinds of citizenship? Our goal in this class will be to see how literature can offer different theories of what home and humanity can mean. Beginning with the classical epic hero Odysseus who desperately battles monsters, seductive women, and vengeful gods to get home from the Trojan war, we turn to more modern stories where travelers are not traditional heroes but figures who feel vulnerable or alienated even within their home spaces. Even as their journeys share themes of violence and renewal—and fantasy and realism—these different works steer us to contemplate strikingly different problems such as immigration, racial inequities, and climate change. Texts will likely include Margaret Atwood's feminist recentering of The Odyssey in the domestic space (The Penelopiad); Shakespeare's tragic story of lovers' journeying to war on a Mediterranean island where danger resides where they least expect it (Othello); Octavia Butler's apocalyptic cli-fi story about a young Black woman's attempt to refound a world utterly destroyed (The Parable of the Sower); Maurice Sendak's children's book about punishment, nourishment, and fantasy (Where the Wild Things Are); creative nonfictional narratives of detainees in the UK (Refugee Tales); Mohsin Hamid's poignant tale of Middle Eastern exiled lovers who find a magic portal to lands where outcasts band together for survival (Exit West); and Yuri Herrera's stunning rewriting of Odysseus as a young Mexican woman undertaking a hazardous borderland crossing to the US to reconnect her family (Signs Preceding the End of the World). This course will introduce students skills—how to interpret literature, situate fictional writing in historical contexts, and craft strong arguments in writing.
Class Materials (Required)
Homer, The Odyssey, ed. Emily Wilson ISBN: 978-0393356250
Shakespeare, Othello, ed. Barbara Mowat (Folger edition) ISBN 978-0743477550
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad ISBN: 978-1786892485
Octavia Bulter, The Parable of the Sower ISBN 978-1538732182
Mohsin Hamid, Exit West; ISBN 978-0735212206
Yuri Herrera, Signs Preceding the End of the World, trans. Dillman ISBN 978-1908276421
Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are ISBN 978-1782955030
Class Attributes
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area