Month: September 2016
+ african american literature, american literature, colin kaepernick, david walker, ernest j gaines, jackie robinson, james baldwin, james meredith, john carlos, national anthem, NFL, southern literature, the sky is gray, tommie smith, Uncategorized
Colin Kaepernick, the National Anthem, and Progress?
Over the past few weeks, I have seen numerous responses to Colin Kaepernick’s demonstrations during the National Anthem. Last week, an article even appeared on ESPN pointing out which players chose to demonstrate during the anthem in week three of the NFL season by kneeling, raising their fists in protest, or through some other means. Editorials and opinion pieces have appeared in various media … Read More Colin Kaepernick, the National Anthem, and Progress?
+ brother ali, david walker, harriet jacobs, hip hop, james baldwin, olaudah equiano, the travelers, Uncategorized
Brother Ali’s “The Travelers” and Early American Literature
Brother Ali’s “The Travelers,” from his 2009 album US, serves as a way to bridge the gap, for students, between Early American literature and their current existence. Typically, I share this song with students to give them a contemporary perspective on the Middle Passage as we read Olaudah Equiano’s Narrative. The first verse provides a graphic picture of the Middle Passage then the life of … Read More Brother Ali’s “The Travelers” and Early American Literature
Students and My Trip to the ICU!
“Dad! DAD! Daaaaaaad. . . ” As I lay in my bed in the CVICU last week, I could not sleep. Partly because of the medicine I was on for my pneumonia, but also because the screams from another room, one which I could not see, penetrated the air. At various times throughout the night, I heard a man scream out for his dad … Read More Students and My Trip to the ICU!
+ american literature, catharine maria sedgwick, early american literature, lydia maria child, sydney smith, theodore dwight, Uncategorized
Sarah Kemble Knight and Calls for a Distinctly American Literature
During our discussion of Sarah Kemble Knight’s Journal, I asked students to think about a broad topic regarding the first publication of Knight’s text in 1825 in relation to calls for a distinctly American literature during the early part of the nineteenth century. I have written about this before in regards to the turn towards Native American characters and more specifically King Phillip; however, … Read More Sarah Kemble Knight and Calls for a Distinctly American Literature
+ american literature, early american literature, mary rowlandson, puritan, sarah kemble knight, Uncategorized
Sarah Kemble Knight and Spirituality
Every semester, I enjoy teaching Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative in relation to Sarah Kemble Knight’s The Journal of Madam Knight because Rowlandson plays into students’s perceptions of women’s role during the colonial period and early part of the eighteenth century and Knight works to dispel their preconceived notions that women did not have much agency during the period. As well, Knight provides a a counter … Read More Sarah Kemble Knight and Spirituality
