Beyond the Plantation

Winter 2014: October 2, 2014 - January 9, 2015

Mondays: 10:50-12:20, Room 104

Professor: Barbara Ladd

Office: 216A; Office Hours-Mondays 13:00 - 14:00, and by appointment on other days of the week.

Email: Barbara.ladd@emory.edu

Beyond the Plantation: In the global vision of new work in southern studies, the Plantation has re-emerged (after a hiatus of several decades) as the predominant site and trope for discussions of U.S. southern culture to the point where we have seen something of a naturalization of the idea of the twentieth-century and contemporary U.S. South as a "postplantation" culture. No one would argue that the plantation is one very important touchstone in southern literary history, and one with global reach, but there are others: the small farm, the town, the backwoods, the river, and the swamp. In this course, we will examine some of the most salient sites in southern literature and literary history and explore the significance of this imagined country. Reading will include slave and travel narratives, novels, short stories, as well as a selection of work on the theory and uses of place and space.

Readings-Travel Narratives and Commentary: selections from Frances Kemble, Dickens, Mrs. Trollope, Captain Frederick Marryat, Francis Parkman, Harriet Martineau, and others; selections from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi, Edward King’s The Great South, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men. Slave Narrative: Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy. Short Stories: George W. Cable’s "Café des Exilés," "Belles Demoiselles Plantation," and "Jean-ah Poquelin"; Kate Chopin’s "Desiree’s Baby" and "Athénaïse"; Katherine Anne Porter’s "Pale Horse, Pale Rider," and "Noon Wine." Novels: John Pendleton Kennedy, Swallow Barn; Martin Delany, Blake; Elizabeth Madox Roberts, The Time of Man; William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, and If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem; Cormac McCarthy, Child of God. Brief selections from Edward Casey, Doreen Massey, Raymond Williams, and others on place and space.

Requirements: periodic short writing assignments in class or before class (250-500 words); two short reaction papers (750-1000 words), a presentation (10 minutes), and a final essay (4000-5000 words). Lecture and discussion course-discussion will be encouraged.

Syllabus:

Week 1 (Wednesday Oct. 1): No class this week; I will be available to meet with individual students in 216A on Thursday, Oct. 2^nd, from 13:00 to 14:00, and by appointment at other times-email me to schedule the appointment.

2 (Monday, October 6): Introduction: William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!

3 (Monday, October 13): Absalom, Absalom! continued. (Selection of Presentation Dates)

4 (Monday, October 20): selection from travel narratives; and The Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy.

5 (Monday, October 27): John Pendleton Kennedy, Swallow Barn

6 (Monday, November 3): Martin Delany, Blake

7 (Monday, November 10): Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (selections) and Edward King, The Great South (selections); also Edward Casey, selections from The Fate of Place and Remembering.

8 (Monday, November 17): George W. Cable, Kate Chopin. Other supplementary readings to be announced. (First Short Reaction Paper Due)

9 (Monday, November 24): Elizabeth Madox Roberts, The Time of Man

10 (Monday, December 1): Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (selections); Katherine Anne Porter, "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" and "Noon Wine."

11 (Monday, Dec 8): Faulkner, If I Forget Thee, Jersusalem

12 (Monday, December 15): Cormac McCarthy, Child of God. (Second Short Reaction Paper Due)

February 5, 2015: Final Essay due (via email attachment to my Emory University address)