Tag: Literature

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The Joys Of Assigning Unessay Projects in Class

At least once a year, I assign an unessay project and essay in my classes. I’ve written about this numerous times, and while I am always nervous about what the students will produce, because fear and apprehension keep them from really leaning into the project, I end up standing in awe at what the students end up producing for their unessay project. Last semester, I … Read More The Joys Of Assigning Unessay Projects in Class

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“What is an American?”: Early American Literature Course Syllabus

It has been a few years since I have taught an American literature course from colonialism to 1865. This semester, I am doing just that, and I am again thinking about the ways that I structure this course. I have always organized this course, and others, around conversations, taking Kenneth Burke’s “parlor metaphor” to heart that conversations continue onwards, ceaselessly, even when participants leave. … Read More “What is an American?”: Early American Literature Course Syllabus

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The Stealing of One’s Voice in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”

Is it literary theft when Harriett Beecher Stowe takes Josiah Henson’s real-life story of escaping enslavement and crafts Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Or, is it literary theft when she does this and does not acknowledge Henson’s inspiration? Is it artistic theft when The Chariot have a riff on “The Deaf Policeman” that directly takes uses the same riff found in Nirvana’s “Tourettes”? Or, is it homage? Is it … Read More The Stealing of One’s Voice in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”

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Is It Literary Theft?: Looking at Writing in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”

I read R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface over the summer, with the intention of adding it to my “Lost Voices in American Literature” course. After reading it, I was very interested in the discussion that would arise when we finally discussed the book in class. I thought, on the first couple of days, that students wouldn’t say much and that we just look at the way that June … Read More Is It Literary Theft?: Looking at Writing in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”

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Ágota Kristóf’s “The Illiterate” and the Loss of One’s Self

A few days ago, as I am wont to do on occasion, I walked through the stacks at my local library, immediately making a line towards the French literature section. I did this, partly, because I had just read Michael Rothberg’s Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization and wanted to see if I could find some of the works by Didier Daeninckx, André Schwarz-Bart, and … Read More Ágota Kristóf’s “The Illiterate” and the Loss of One’s Self