English 190

Book List

Akomfrah, John: The Nine Muses; Bastos, Augusto Roa: I the Supreme; Carpentier, Alejo: Explosion in the Cathedral; Danticat, Edwidge: Brother, I'm Dying; Delillo, Don: Libra; Derrida, Jacques: Archive Fever; LeGuin, Ursula: The Dispossessed; Morrison, Toni: A Mercy; Nietzsche, Friedrich: The Use and Abuse of History; Trouillot, Michel-Rolph: Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of the Past; White, Hayden: Metahistory; de Certeau, Michel: The Writing of History

Description

Historiography is a study of the writing of history; indeed, it is an examination of the problematic of historical writing—how does one derive and form a coherent narrative of what has happened from incomplete and fragmented artifacts of the past? In this class we will focus on the interplay between the literary and history. Our questions: How does literature address the interstices of history—the past that evades narration (the Haitian Revolution), the agents absent from the archive (the enslaved or refugees)? What is the relation between the writing of history and power? Can we narrate history from a fictional future? What happens when an historical event transitions into conspiracy (the Kennedy assassination)?

Please read the paragraph about English 190 on page 2 of the instructions area of this Announcement of Clases for more details about enrolling in or wait-listing for this course.