COML/ENG 144A-1 Jennifer ReedOlin-Sang Amer Civ Ctr 212 Rabb 266aMon/Wed/Th 1-1.50pm Office hours: Mon/Wed/Thu 12-1pm

Tel: x6-216

Island Fictions

“We dreamed of storm-tossed islands, straining at their anchors …” (Amitav Ghosh)

“Thus it seems that even islands like to keep each other company” (D.H. Lawrence)

“There are so many islands! / As many islands as the stars at night … just as this earth is one island in archipelagoes of stars” (Derek Walcott)

Course Description

This course will engage in an inquiry into the literature of islands. Our focus on the island, the islander, and island life will help us to think through questions of genre and form by posing questions about utopias and dystopias, isolation and society, the fortress and the fragment.

This course visits an archipelago of texts from drama and travel narrative to poetry and the novel. We will use fictions about islands to explore questions about literature – the enabling constraints of form, spaces of literary experimentation, and solitary and social reading. We’ll also think through how cultural narratives, in this case those of the island, are useful for, and troubled by, literary narratives. We’ll explore issues of colonialism, post-colonialism, literature and the environment, and island theory.

We begin with narratives of shipwreck and exile, looking at Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611) alongside Aimé Césaire’s 1969 post-colonial response and Julie Taymor’s gender-swapping adaptation (2010). Next, we’ll consider how the idea of enislement has figured in travel writing, including Denis Diderot’s encounters with Tahitian culture, and Samuel Johnson and James Boswell’s conflicting accounts of the trip they took together to Scotland’s most remote islands. The class will investigate how the island facilitates and forms genres like science fiction in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) and Adolfo Bioy

Casares, The Invention of Morel (1940). Like islands, fictions can be spaces of experimentation. Finally, we’ll ask how the island constructs identity, looking at poetry by Derek Walcott, Epeli Hau'ofa, Tales of the Tikongs (1983), and Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide (2006).

Objectives

Juxtapose works from a variety of national and cultural traditions and develop ways of thinking comparatively about distinctive iterations and shapes of the island narrative.

Close read and analyze a range of forms, and gain a sophisticated understanding of the concept of forms.

Consider the island as a space of renewal and experimentation and analyze literature that similarly seeks to establish a space to ‘make it new’ and to experiment and innovate.

Produce clear and critical oral and written analyses of a variety of texts. Inquire into larger cultural narratives about islands, and think about how these

fictions have been employed on the scale of geopolitics. Produce written inquiry across a variety of genres, including (for graduate

students) the annotated bibliography, and (for undergraduate students) creative experimentation with forms and genres thematically inspired by the island.

Requirements

Do the readings before every class, and come prepared to discuss them with care andforethought as participation will be a significant component of your grade.

Undergraduate students will be responsible for one team-teaching assignment, one close reading paper of 4-6 pages, two a creative and critical assignments that allow students to experiment with writing across genres and forms, and a final interpretive paper of approximately 7 pages (those students looking to fulfill the requirements for the new major will have the option to write a 12-page paper).

Graduate students will produce a close reading assignment, as well as a research paper. You will scaffold the research paper with a paper proposal and annotated bibliography.

Assignments

Undergraduate Students

Assignment 1: Close reading exercise (due Thursday, September 21st)

Assignment 2: In response to the contained form of the island, you will produce an argument about one of the texts from unit 2 within a contained form of your choice, e.g. a sonnet sequence, Twitter thread, etc. An accompanying artist statement will discuss your experience writing within strict borders, how you used limited resources, etc. (due Thursday, October 12th)

Assignment 3: In response to our unit on experimentation and science fiction, this assignment will ask you to use writing to experiment. You will cross-pollinate/bring together a written argument about one of our texts from unit 3 with one other medium. The other medium might be visual, like a map. It might be aural, like a playlist. Thoughtful risk-taking will be rewarded (due Thursday, November 2nd).

Assignment 4: Frame, and then attempt to answer, a question around a thematic of island literature in two of the works from the syllabus (due Thursday, December 7th)

Grade Breakdown

Assignment 1: 10%Assignment 2: 10%Assignment 3: 20%Assignment 4: 20%Attendance and Participation: 25%Team Teaching Assignment: 15%

Graduate Students

Close reading exercise (due Thursday, September 21st) Research paper proposal (due Thursday, November 2nd)Annotated bibliography (due Monday, November 13th)Research paper (due Friday, December 15th)

Grade Breakdown

Close reading exercise: 10% Research paper proposal: 20%Annotated bibliography: 20%Research paper: 50%

N.B. I am very interested in helping my students improve their writing: make an appointment to meet with me. I also encourage you to visit the Brandeis Writing Center in Goldfarb 232 for help at any time during the semester.

Team teaching Assignment (undergraduates)

In pairs you will be responsible for team-teaching a 30-minute period of class time. On the Each of you will turn in a two-paragraph reflective statement on the experience: the first paragraph will describe the choices you made as a group about how to co-lead the class, and the second paragraph will describe your individual contributions to your group’s work. On Monday 11th, you will have the opportunity to nominate the date on which you will team teach.

Attendance and Participation (25%).

You are allowed three absences during the semester; each subsequent absence will lower your final grade for the course by one-third of a grade (e.g., A- becomes B+). Class begins promptly at 1pm, so you should arrive before 1pm. Lateness is disruptive and disrespectful. Tardiness will negatively affect your participation grade.

You are responsible for handing in all work due on or before the due date, and for knowing all the material covered on days missed.

Your vocal and prepared participation will be essential. I will not be lecturing at you; instead, we will be exploring questions as a group. For this class to succeed, you must come prepared. Bring a copy of the text or texts we are discussing to every class. If the text is on the ‘Required Reading’ list, please bring the edition specified on that list. If the text is on LATTE, please print it out and bring a hard copy to class. On a very few occasions I will indicate ahead of time that we will consult an online text electronically during class, so you should bring a laptop if possible and I will project that text in class. Read your texts with a pen in hand: mark them up and refer to specific passages during discussion. In class, pose questions of your classmates and of me; propose answers to the questions posed by others; listen attentively to your peers.

In addition, you will post once a week to the class LATTE site (starting with the week that begins on Monday, September 4th) and these posts will constitute a part of your participation grade. These posts should go up by 9pm the day before our Monday, Wednesday or our Thursday class. You will post in the forum titled ‘Discussion Posts,’ which you will find in LATTE under ‘General Forums.’ I will post suggested topics or questions each week, but you are also free to write on something that interests you, and that you think will provide good fodder for discussion, in the text(s) we are reading for that week. These posts will be between 250-300 words, and in them you might choose to engage closely with a moment in the assigned reading, or to respond more broadly to the ideas or strategies a text presents. This is a good place to identify something you found strange, ambiguous, or difficult, and to seek to engage with that ambiguity or strangeness, rather than trying to package or tame it. Be puzzled!

Respectful Discourse

My aim and hope in this course is to create an environment of respectful inclusivity. In class discussions we will not tokenize individuals, or make assumptions about the experience of any particular group. However, if one of us makes a mistake in the way we express ourselves, let’s respectfully hold each other accountable. If anything in this class makes any student uncomfortable, please come and talk to me about it and we will address it together as a class.

Laptop, Tablet, and Phone Policy

Electronic devices (including laptops and tablets) are not permitted in class, unless specific instructions are given in the class beforehand/by Quickmail that we’ll use laptops to consult electronic texts in class. All devices must be silenced and put away during class.

Disabilities

If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.

Academic Integrity

You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Please consult Brandeis University Rights and Responsibilities (http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/srcs/rr/) for all policies and procedures related to academic integrity. Students may be required to submit work to TurnItIn.com software to verify originality. Allegations of alleged academic dishonesty will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Integrity. Sanctions for academic dishonesty can include failing grades and/or suspension from the university. Citation and research assistance can be found at LTS - Library guides (http://guides.library.brandeis.edu/c.php?g=301723).

Required Texts:

All texts are available at the Brandeis University Bookstore. If you choose to purchase your books elsewhere, make sure to buy the correct edition below:

William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Simon & Schuster, 978-0743482837)Aimé Césaire, A Tempest (Theatre Communications Group, 978-1559362108)H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr Moreau (Bantam Classics, 978-0553214321)Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel (NYRB Classics, 978-1590170571)Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (Mariner Books, 978-0618711666)

Reading Schedule

Most readings will be from our required texts, and the rest will be available on LATTE.

Part 1: Shipwreck and Exile

Wednesday, August 30th Welcome and introduction to the class

Thursday August 31st William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1611) (Act I, scene 1, p.7-11)

Monday September 4th **Labor Day - No class**

Wednesday September 6th William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Act I, scene ii, p.12-49)

Thursday September 7th William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Act II, p.53-87)

Monday September 11th William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Act III, p.90-117)

Wednesday September 13th William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Act IV, p.119-141)

Thursday September 14th William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Act V and Epilogue, p. 145-171)

Monday September 18th Octave Mannoni, Prospero and Caliban: The Psychology of Colonization (1950) (excerpt)

Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (excerpt)

Wednesday September 20th Aimé Césaire, A Tempest (1969) (Prologue and Act I, p.1-24)

Thursday September 21st **No class**

Monday September 25th Aimé Césaire, A Tempest (Act II, p.25-35)

Wednesday September 27th Aimé Césaire, A Tempest (Act III, p.37-66)

**Watch Julie Taymor’s The Tempest (2010), available through our LATTE site, before class on Thursday**

Thursday September 28th Julie Taymor, The Tempest (2010)

Part 2: Tourism and Exploration

Monday October 2nd Denis Diderot, Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville (1772) (Parts I and II, p.35-47)

Tuesday October 3rd Denis Diderot, Supplement to the Voyage of (Brandeis Day) Bougainville (Parts III, IV, and V, 47-75)

Wednesday October 4th Writing Workshop

Thursday October 5th **No class**

Monday October 9th Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) (p.70-119)

Wednesday October 11th James Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) (p.246-284)

Thursday October 12th **No class**

Part 3: Science Fiction and Experimentation

Monday October 16th Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859) (selections)

Wednesday October 18th H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) (p.5-38)

Thursday October 19th H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau (p.39-84)

Monday October 23rd H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau (p.85-131)

Wednesday October 25th Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel (1940) (p.5-38)

Thursday October 26th Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel (p.38-65)

Monday October 30th Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel (p.65-103)

Part 4: Island Identities

Wednesday November 1st D.H. Lawrence, “The Man Who Loved Islands” (1927)

Thursday November 2nd Derek Walcott, “Tales of the Islands” (1962), “Islands” (1962), “Crusoe’s Island” (1965),

“Missing the Sea” (1965)

Monday November 6th Derek Walcott, “New World” (1976), “The Sea Is History” (1979), “The Man Who Loved Islands” (1981)

Wednesday November 8th Epeli Hau'ofa, “Old Wine in New Bottles,” “The Tower of Babel,” Tales of the Tikongs

(1983) Thursday November 9th Epeli Hau'ofa, “The Second Coming,” “The

Glorious Pacific Way,” Tales of the Tikongs (1983) (selections)

Monday November 13th Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (2006) (p.3-41)

Wednesday November 15th Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (p.42-83)

Thursday November 16th Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (p.83-124)

Monday November 20th Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (p.124-167)

Wednesday November 22nd **No class**

Thursday November 23rd **No class**

Monday November 27th Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (p.124-209)

Wednesday November 29th Writing Workshop

Thursday November 30th Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (p.209-250)

Monday December 4th Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (p.250-289)

Wednesday December 6th Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (p.289-p.329)

Thursday December 7th Conclusions

**Assignment 3 Due on LATTE**

**Note: our reading schedule may undergo small changes as we go along and figure out our best pace, but you will not be required to purchase anything additional as a result.**