Syllabus

E-mail is generally the best way to reach me. If you want to make an appointment to see me, I suggest you do so in class or over e-mail. I am always very happy to hear from you and encourage you to contact me with any questions or concerns that you might have about the course.

Email me at rrisam [at] salemstate [dot] edu

Call me at (978) 542-2662

Meetings available by appointment in Meier Hall 102F

Study of the sea as literal setting and symbolic environment in American literature since the seventeenth century. In addition to nautical fiction and poetry of the sea, the course will examine sea-inspired genres such as the sea-deliverance narrative and the factual travel narrative. 3 credits.

Throughout the Americas, for many centuries, the ocean has been a site of encounter, cultural transaction, and adventure. This week-long institute examines how waterways have shaped the history of modernity, how writers have represented and negotiated this history, and how the ocean has become a category of analysis within literary scholarship, complicating how we understand race, gender, sexuality, migration, and resistance. Literary texts to be read in preparation for the institute may include Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” (1855), Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (1986), Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage (1990), Patricia Powell’s The Pagoda (1998), Le Thi Diem Thuy’s The Gangster We Are All Looking For (2003), and Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008). We also will read short excerpts from theoretical texts about oceans; these may include Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic (1993), Elizabeth DeLoughrey and George B. Handley’s “Towards an Aesthetics of the Earth” (2011), and Hester Blum’s “Oceanic Studies” (2013). Together, as we discuss the reading, we will examine multimedia representations of the ocean, including Afrofuturist electronica, clips from Steven Spielberg’s film Amistad (1997), and excerpts from the new literary classic Emoji Dick, Melville’s iconic whale tale translated into Japanese emoticons. 🐳 👍 Additionally, the institute will introduce students to digital humanities – a cutting-edge area of literary studies that engages with computing and new media – as we consider how digital archives and maps shed new light on the texts we have read. Students will be responsible for leading discussion, contributing to a collaborative digital project, and writing a reflection paper due after the institute is over.

This course will:

• Explore literatures of the Americas that negotiate the relationship between the ocean and human experience.

• Examine theoretical scholarship in oceanic studies.

• Facilitate dialogue between students to encourage understanding of how the ocean functions as a category of analysis in literary scholarship, complicating how we understand race, gender, sexuality, migration, and resistance.

• Introduce students to the field of digital humanities and its uses for literary studies.

• Engage students in hands-on practice in digital humanities.

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Identify the ways that writers in literature of the Americas use the ocean to represent the complexities of lived experience.

2. Describe core concepts in oceanic theory.

3. Analyze how writers use tropes of water to engage with intersectional migrant identities and the possibilities of resistance against dominant political and ideological forces.

4. Use digital tools to engage with literary analysis.

5. Appraise the limits and affordances of the digital tools they use for literary study.

Novels (available at the Salem State bookstore)
Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (1986)
Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage (1990)
Patricia Powell’s The Pagoda (1998)
Le Thi Diem Thuy’s The Gangster We Are All Looking For (2003)
Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008)

Novelty (available on password-protected download page here)
Emoji Dick, Herman Melville’s classic whale tale, as told by Japanese emoticons (Ch. 1-2)

Novella (available from Project Gutenberg)
Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” (1855)

Memoir (available from Project Gutenberg)
Olaudah Equiano’s The Narrative of the Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) (Ch. 1-2)
Emily Kugler’s “Equiano’s English Subscribers List”

Film (available through NOBLE or Amazon Streaming)
Amistad (1997)

Music (available on YouTube)
Drexciya, “Aquarazorda” (1994)
Drexciya, “Dehydration” (1994)
Interview with Drexciya (00.00-4:30 minutes)
Philip Sherburne, “Drexciya: Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller”
Kodwo Eshun, “Drexciya: Fear of a Wet Planet”

The following articles can be downloaded from the password-protected page here.

Blum, Hester. “Introduction: Oceanic Studies.” Atlantic Studies 10.2 (2013): 151-55.

—. “The Prospect of Oceanic Studies.” PMLA 125.3 (May 2010): 670-677.

Cohen, Margaret. “Literary Studies on the Terraqueous Globe.” PMLA 125.3 (May 2010): 657-662.

Coulson, Douglas M. “Distorted Records in ‘Benito Cereno’ and the Slave Rebellion Tradition.” Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 22.1 (2010): 1-34.

Crane, Jacob. “Beyond the Cape: Amitav Ghosh, Frederick Douglass, and the Limits of the Black Atlantic.” Postcolonial Text 6.4 (2011).

DeLoughrey, Elizabeth. “Heavy Waters: Waste and Atlantic Modernity.” PMLA 125.3 (May 2010): 703-12.

Dillon, Elizabeth Maddock. “A Sea of Texts: The Atlantic World, Spatial Mapping, and Equiano’s Narrative.” Religion and Space in the Atlantic World. Eds. John Corrigan, David Bodenhamer, and Trevor Harris. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, forthcoming. http://edillo4.wix.com/equiano-gis#!

Eckstein, Lars. “The Pitfalls of Picturing Atlantic Slavery: Steven Spielberg’s Amistad vs. Guy Deslaurier’s The Middle Passage.” Cultural Studies Review 10.1 (2008): 72-84.

Gilroy, Paul. “The Black Atlantic as a Counterculture of Modernity.” The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1993. 1-40.

Hofmeyr, Isabel. “Universalizing the Indian Ocean.” PMLA 125.3 (May 2010): 721-729.

Matsuda, Matt K. “AHR Forum: The Pacific.” The American Historical Review 111.3 (2006): 758-780.

Warren, Lenora D. “Insurrection at Sea: Violence, the Slave Trade, and the Rhetoric of Abolition.” Atlantic Studies 10.2 (2013): 197-210.

Wilson, Rob. “Doing Cultural Studies Inside APEC: Literature, Cultural Identity, and Global/Local Dynamics in the American Pacific.” Comparative Literature 53.4 (Autumn 2001): 389-403.

Yaegar, Patricia. “Editor’s Column: Sea Trash, Dark Pools, and the Tragedy of the Commons.” PMLA 125.3 (May 2010): 523-545.

Participation
This seminar is discussion-driven, so active participation is required. You are expected to complete the reading for each day and come to class prepared to discuss it. You should plan on reading the assignments before the start of the institute so you can formulate substantive questions and comments that lead to productive class discussion. Given the volume of reading for the course, I have prepared a list of questions for you to consider to give your reading some focus. In addition to being an active participant in discussions, you may be asked to complete quick writing activities, explore digital projects, and participate in collaborative work on a digital project that we design together. All of this will be included in your participation, which will count for 50% of your final grade.

Leading Discussion
Each participant will be responsible for leading discussion on one literary text and two of the theoretical texts assigned. You will be given the opportunity to sign up for texts of your choice. As discussion leader, you are required to formulate questions that will shape our discussion of the text and guide our conversation on them. Please supply me with a copy of your questions, either on paper or via email. You do not need to give me questions in advance but I am happy to look over them if you wish. Leading discussion will count for 25% of your grade.

Digital Project and Reflection Paper
During the institute, we will be collaborating on a digital project based on Maryse Condé’s novel I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem. This project will serve as the culminating experience for the course. Digital literary projects engage an array of skills including literary analysis, working with data, coding, and design. Creating a project together will allow us to not only share our common interest in literary study but also leverage and develop our other interests to engage in literature in new ways. You will notice that I have built in time on the institute schedule to introduce you to the field of digital humanities, familiarize you with tools for digital literary research, and allow you to explore and discuss existing digital scholarship. Based on these experiences, we will design and execute a project on Condé’s novel, which has relevance to both the theme of the course and our location in Salem, Mass. In the course of the institute, we will brainstorm, plan, and work together to create a project practically achievable in the scope of the class. At the conclusion of the institute, there will likely be additional independent work to complete the project and you will also write a 4-5 page, double-spaced reflection paper that describes your contribution to the project, what you learned from it, and the insights on Condé’s novel and Salem that you gleaned from your work. Your work on the project and reflection paper will count for 25% of your grade.

Leading discussion 25%
Digital project and reflection paper 25%
Participation 50%

Engaged discussion is a crucial part of this course, so it is imperative that you be in class and on time for all sessions. Unexcused absences will interfere with your reading, writing, and participation in the course, all of which will affect your grade. Missing more than 10% of planned course activities may result in a failing grade. Absences are excused if they are due to documented illness or religious observance. Excessive tardiness may also be counted as unexcused absences.

All students are expected to be familiar with the academic regulations, including those regarding academic integrity for Salem State University as published in the course catalog: http://catalog.salemstate.edu/content.php?catoid=19&navoid=2098#Academic_Integrity

All work you submit for this course must be your own. While I hope you will learn from your discussions with your classmates, you must ensure that every piece of writing you submit to me is written in your own words. Plagiarism will result in a grade of “0” for the assignment and could lead to additional consequences, including failing the course. If you have any questions about plagiarism, please contact me right away.

Salem State is committed to providing equal access to the educational experience to all students in compliance with section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act and The Americans with Disabilities Act and to providing all reasonable academic accommodations, aids or adjustments. Any student who has a documented disability requiring an accommodation, aid, or adjustment should speak with the instructor immediately and present a Faculty Contact Form so that appropriate provisions can be made. Students with disabilities who have not already done so should provide documentation to and schedule an appointment with the Office for Students with Disabilities (978-542-5217) to develop the Faculty Contact Form and obtain appropriate services.

In the event of a university declared critical emergency, Salem State University reserves the right to alter this course plan. Students should refer to www.salemstate.edu for further information and updates. The course attendance policy stays in effect until there is a college declared critical emergency. In the case of an emergency, we will use online discussion boards and Google Hangout to continue our work together.

Profound literacy is the hallmark of a liberal education. To that end, English department courses involve instruction and study in literature and writing, the emphasis varying according to the course content. Through intensive reading and analysis, students develop a critical appreciation of literature written in disparate times and places. Through expository writing, students learn techniques for conducting research and for drafting and revising analytic and persuasive essays based on critical reading. In creative writing, students develop an aesthetic through practicing the craft of various genres. The English department prepares students for professional and academic leadership including careers in teaching and writing.