2008 AM Center and Margin: Conversations across the British Literary Tradition
| Please note that this course will start on May 19! |
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- Lecturer: Maria Doyle
- Time: Mo, 10-12
- Venue: A10 1-121a
- Contact: mdoyle@westga.edu
Center and Margin: Conversations across the British Literary Tradition
The British literary tradition begins with a story of movement between center and periphery, with a hero called to banish a monstrous outsider and restore the peace of a kingdom that is not his own. Thus, motion complicates the idea of the center – the site of cultural and political authority – and the margin – that which is considered outside, other, even monstrous. This negotiation raises questions about how we define these poles and how they influence one another, and this course will explore how writers throughout the British tradition, from earlier canonical authors to contemporary multicultural voices, have used this idea of travel to examine questions of cultural authority and to define their relationship to the idea of Britishness.
Class requirements:
For Uebung credit: regular attendance, active participation (especially during class sessions designated “discussion”), three short one-two page response essays, occasional out-of-class exercises as assigned.
Course Texts:
Seamus Heaney, translator, Beowulf
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman
A list of materials for further reading will be provided as the class progresses.
Class Schedule:
Lecture 1: May 19
Translating Beowulf : A Contemporary Poet and a Cultural Artifact
Lecture 2: May 26
Beowulf: The Monster, the Hero and the Cycle of Conquest and Revenge
Discussion 1: Time to be determined, week of May 26
Beowulf: Issues in Textual Analysis
Lecture 3: June 2
William Shakespeare, The Tempest: The Island as Otherwhere, or Recreating the Center on the Margin
Discussion 2: Time to be determined, week of June 2
The Tempest: Close Reading and Performance Issues
Lecture 4: June 9
Jonanthan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Book 4: The Center as Margin
Discussion 3: Time to be determined, week of June 9
Gulliver’s Travels: Dissecting Satire
Lecture 5: June 16
Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman: To Wrench the World Adrift
Discussion 4: Time to be determined, week of June 16
Death and the King’s Horseman: Tragic Form and Performance
Lecture 6: June 23
Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market: The Female “Warrior” and the Domestic Center
Discussion 5: Time to be determined, week of June 23
Christina Rossetti and Charlotte Brontë: Victorian Issues in Female Monstrosity
Lecture 7: June 30
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea: A Community Transforming from Center to Margin
Discussion 6: Time to be determined, week of June 30
Wide Sargasso Sea: Some Issues of Language
Lecture 8: July 7
James Joyce, from Dubliners (“Araby” and “Eveline”) and Salman Rushdie, from East, West (“Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies” and “The Courter”): The Short Story, Cultural Crossings and Concluding Thoughts
