Race & Sexuality
in Caribbean & American Literatures
LHCS: 595: 312 (03)
ENG: 351: 365 (02)
WAGS: 988:396 (06)
COMP LIT: 195: 308 (01)
Fall 2011
Mon-Wed: 1:40 pm—3 pm
Lucy Stone Hall A256, Livingston
Instructor: Professor Michelle Stephens
Office: Murray 008, College [& Beck 202]
Office hours: Mondays 3-4
Email: mas732@rci.rutgers.edu
Course Description & Goals:
Racial, sexual, and gendered formations, family and kinship relations, all developed
in the context of a New World intercultural environment created by the historical
forces of colonial modernity: the slave trade, slavery, colonialism and imperialism.
These forces shaped not only inter- and intra- racial intimate relations, but also, the
constructions and representations of the bodies of people of color. This course
familiarizes students with the ways erotic experience has been articulated in the
literature of the Americas, but also in relation to visual forms. As we explore how
contemporary authors, artists, and intellectuals have wrestled with the
disillusionments of colonial history and their impact on sexuality in the Americas,
this course will require students to engage in formal analysis of fictional texts, close
reading of critical essays in literary criticism and race and sexuality theory, and close
analysis of visual cultural objects.
Book List:
Edwidge Danticat, (Breath, Eyes, Memory), 256 pages (Vintage, 1998)
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ISBN-13: 978-0375705045
Junot Diaz, (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), 352 pages (Riverhead Trade,
2008)
ISBN-13: 978-1594483295
Nalo Hopkinson, (The Salt Roads), 416 pages (Grand Central Publishing, 2004)
ISBN-13: 978-0446677134
Caryl Phillips (Cambridge) 192 pages Vintage (1993)
ISBN-13: 978-0679736899
Patricia Powell (The Pagoda) 256 pages Mariner Books (1999)
ISBN-13: 978- 0156008297
Requirements:
**ATTENDANCE REQUIRED @ at the following events:
1) Caribbean Philosophical Association Conference (at least 1 plenary & 1 panel)
Friday Sep 30th afternoon plenary w. Junot Diaz, Buck-Morss
Friday Sep 30th evening plenary on Fanon
Friday morn-Saturday night = panels
2) Caribbean Art Exhibit: Disillusions: Gendered Visions of the Caribbean and
Its Diasporas
Friday October 14th = Symposium: Disillusions: Gender and Contemporary Caribbean Art
Across Borders
Morning Session: “Disillusioned? The Artists Respond,” 10:30-12pm
@ Middlesex County College, Studio Theatre Gallery, Edison NJ.
Afternoon Session 1: “Caribbean Artists in a Globalized Art World,”
& Afternoon Session 2: “New Technologies Across the Caribbean”
1:30-5pm @ Rutgers University, College Ave., Murray 212.
Assignments (due dates to be determined in class):
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* 1 Reading Response on each novel, connecting it to other reading, presentations, and/ or
visual material for the week (at least 1-2 pages, (15%)).
* 1 Class Presentation on a novelist from the course, connecting to themes in extra readings
and presentations (10%).
* 1 Class Presentation connecting a visual image to the novel for the week (10%).
* 1 Short Paper on an artist from Disillusions: Gendered Visions of the Caribbean and Its
Diasporas, connecting themes in artist’s work with a novel (at least 5 pages, 15%).
* 1 Long Analytic Final Paper on a novel and groups of artists or images from the course
(10-12 pages, 20%).
* 1 Final Exam (20%): check for day & time scheduled @ http://finalexams.rutgers.edu/
(12/21, 8am)
Other Expectations and Guidelines:
1) It is my expectation that students will follow Rutgers’ Current Academic Integrity
Policy, which can be found at: http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml.
Violations include: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, denying others access to
information or material, and facilitating violations of academic integrity.
2) Participation is also 5% of your overall grade. It is your responsibility to follow the
syllabus, taking note of the readings and images assigned for each week, and the
dates of reading responses, writing assignments and exams. Each student is
responsible for participating in class discussion and completing the required elements
of the course. Late assignments will be downgraded for being late.
3) Attendance at class and at required events is also 5% of your overall grade and
repeated absences will lower your grade. If you expect to miss one or two classes,
please use the University absence reporting website https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/
to indicate the date and reason for your absence. An email is automatically sent to
me. It is your responsibility to obtain missed lecture notes and handouts from
someone in the class. It is also your responsibility to give me proper notice if you
have a conflict with a required event or an exam. There will be no make-ups for
missing the scheduled final exam unless a student has made prior arrangements with
me.
4) Students with disabilities requesting accommodations must follow the procedures
outlined at http://disabilityservices.rutgers.edu/request.html.
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Schedule of Class Meetings, Topics and Readings
Introduction
Week 1
Wednesday 9/7
Introductory class
Thursday 9/8
Introductory class cont. (Monday schedule)
Readings: from Édouard Glissant’s Caribbean Discourse & Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White
Masks.
CREOLIZED GEOGRAPHIES
Week 2
Junot Diaz, THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO
Monday 9/12
The Brief Wondrous Life
Wednesday 9/14
The Brief Wondrous Life cont.
Readings: from Krista Thompson’s An Eye for the Tropics & Mary Lou Emery’s Modernism, the
Visual and Caribbean Literature.
Images from INFINITE ISLAND & WRESTLING WITH THE IMAGE
Week 3
Junot Diaz, THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO
Monday 9/19
The Brief Wondrous Life cont.
Wednesday 9/21
The Brief Wondrous Life cont.
Readings: from Carlos Decena’s Tacit Subjects & Frantz Fanon, “The Woman of Color and
the White Man.”
Week 4
Junot Diaz, THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO
Monday 9/26
The Brief Wondrous Life cont.
Wednesday 9/28
The Brief Wondrous Life cont.
Friday 9/30
CARIBBEAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION
Plenaries on Junot Diaz, Susan Buck-Morss & Frantz Fanon
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Week 5
Nalo Hopkinson, THE SALT ROADS
Monday 10/3
The Salt Roads
Wednessday 10/5
The Salt Roads cont.
Readings: Hortense Spillers, “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe,” & from Kim Hall, Things of
Darkness.
Images from Caribbean Art Exhibit: Disillusions: Gendered Visions of the Caribbean
and Its Diasporas
Ana Patricia Palasos (Columbia), Vladimir Cybil Charlier (Haiti),
Rejin Leys (USA/Haiti)
Week 6
Nalo Hopkinson, THE SALT ROADS
Monday 10/10
The Salt Roads cont.
Wednesday 10/12
The Salt Roads cont.
Friday 10/14
CARIBBEAN ART SYMPOSIUM: DISILLUSIONS:
GENDER AND CONTEMPORARY CARIBBEAN ART
ACROSS BORDERS
Morning Session: “Disillusioned? The Artists Respond,” 10:30-12pm
@ Middlesex County College, Studio Theatre Gallery, Edison NJ.
Afternoon Session 1: “Caribbean Artists in a Globalized Art World,”
& Afternoon Session 2: “New Technologies Across the Caribbean”
1:30-5pm @ Rutgers University, College Ave., Murray 212.
Week 7
Nalo Hopkinson, THE SALT ROADS
Monday 10/17
The Salt Roads cont.
Wednessday 10/19
The Salt Roads cont.
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COLONIAL MIGRATIONS
Week 8
Caryl Phillips, CAMBRIDGE
Monday 10/24
Cambridge
Wednesday 10/26
Cambridge cont.
Readings: from Antonio Benítez-Rojo’s Repeating Island and Frantz Fanon, “The Man of
Color and the White Woman.”
Images from Caribbean Art Exhibit: Disillusions: Gendered Visions of the Caribbean
and Its Diasporas
Jessica Lagunas (Guatemala), Holly Bynoe (St. Vincent & the
Grenadines), Sandra Stephens (Jamaica)
Week 9
Caryl Phillips, CAMBRIDGE
Monday 10/31
Cambridge cont.
Wednesday 11/2
Cambridge cont.
Week 10
Patricia Powell, THE PAGODA
Monday 11/7
The Pagoda
Wednesday 11/9
The Pagoda cont.
Readings: Lisa Lowe’s “The Intimacies of Four Continents” and from Lisa Yun’s The Coolie
Speaks.
Images from Caribbean Art Exhibit: Disillusions: Gendered Visions of the Caribbean
and Its Diasporas
Firelei Báez (Dominican Republic), Nicole Awai (Trinidad)
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Week 11
Patricia Powell, THE PAGODA
Monday 11/14
The Pagoda cont.
Wednesday 11/16
The Pagoda cont.
Week 12
Patricia Powell, THE PAGODA
Monday 11/21
The Pagoda cont.
THANKSGIVING RECESS: Wednesday 11/ 23rd - Sunday 11/ 27TH
TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITIES
Week 13
Edwidge Danticat, BREATH, EYES, MEMORY
Monday 11/21
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Wednesday 11/23
Breath, Eyes, Memory cont.
Readings: from Glick-Schiller, Nations Unbound. & Georges Woke Up Laughing.
Images from Caribbean Art Exhibit: Disillusions: Gendered Visions of the Caribbean
and Its Diasporas
María Elena Alvarez (Venezuela), Asha Ganpat (U.S.A./Trinidad),
Melissa Calderón (U.S.A/Puerto Rico)
Week 14
Edwidge Danticat, BREATH, EYES, MEMORY
Monday 12/5
Breath, Eyes, Memory cont.
Wednesday 12/7
Breath, Eyes, Memory cont.
Week 15
Monday 12/12
WRAP-UP
Final Class: Wrap-Up
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