Littérature anglophones diasporiques
This course will be the occasion for a reflection about the continuities and echoes that have united and even constituted the Black Atlantic beyond historical diffractions and national ruptures. The spaces connected by the Atlantic Ocean, and by the experience of the Slave Trade which has all but traversed its modernity, are a case in-point of diasporic migrations of people, ideas, artistic practices and cultural creolization (between North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa). Identity, be it personal or collective, will be considered as a process of endless mediations rather than as the result of restored rootedness. The purpose of the course is also to study such literary categories as regionalist literature, minor genres (the short story in particular), historical fiction, postmodern adaptations, postcolonial rewritings, and the autobiography, in order to retrace the formal experimentations that a transnational space has provoked.
Bibliography:
Kate Chopin, The Awakening and Other Stories (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2000, reissued 2008);
V.S. Naipaul, AWay in the World (1994, London: Picador, 2011, with a preface by the author); Simon Schama / Caryl Phillips, Rough Crossings (London: Oberon Books, 2007).
A short additional bibliography:
A dictionary (Oxford or Merriam Webster)
A grammar textbook (the one you used before – if you do not have one already, you could start using Jean-Claude Burgué & Sylvia Persec, Grammaire Raisonnée de l’anglais 2, Paris : Ophrys, 2004) – this course is not a grammar class but the English language, spoken and written, must be correct and clear. This will be part of the assessment and must be practiced regularly as part of your weekly course work.
Françoise Grellet, A Handbook of Literary Terms : Vocabulaire de l’analyse littéraire en anglais. Paris : Hachette Supérieur, 2013.
Baldick, Chris, ed. The Concise Oxford History of Literary Terms. Oxford: OUP, 1990 OR
Fowler, Roger and Peter Childs. The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms. London: Routledge, 2006. WILKINSON, Robin. Le Commentaire littéraire anglais. Close Readings. Paris : PUF, 2011.
Assessment:
Students will be expected to present a passage from the syllabus not analysed in class, or another work/author/artist/movement/issue related to the topic of the Black Atlantic. Please talk to me for guidance, if necessary.
The written exam will take the form of a commentary on a passage taken from one of the three assigned texts (Chopin, Naipaul, Phillips).