ENGL 3350 Women Writers – Voices from the Gaps

Tuesday, Thursday 2:30 – 3:45 pm, Lind Hall 216

Instructor: Rachel Mordecai
Email: mord0010@umn.edu ◄ the best way to reach me
Mailbox: Outside 306 Lind Hall (look to your left)
Office: Lind 110
Office Hours: Tuesday 12:00 to 2:00 pm, and by appointment

Course Description

This course provides a context for research and analysis concerning literature by women writers of colour in the Americas. This class is in particular a web publication course, resulting in production of (individually) a book review and (in collaborative groups) an author entry for publication on VG/Voices from the Gaps, a literary web site of biographical, critical, and bibliographical material about women writers and artists of colour. Please note that the ability to work happily and well in groups will contribute a great deal to your success in this class.

Voices from the Gaps: http://voices.cla.umn.edu

In this particular section of the Voices course, we will be considering work by Caribbean women writers (these may be women who still reside in the Caribbean, women who were born in the Caribbean and have moved to Canada or the USA, or women who were born in Canada/the USA of Caribbean parents). The core group of texts by six authors, and the related critical/theoretical essays, will ground our exploration and discussion of such issues as race, gender, culture and immigration. In doing this work we will not be able to escape addressing racism, sexism, cultural imperialism and other expressions of relations between the empowered and the disempowered. While these discussions will be challenging and sometimes difficult, I hope that everyone in the class will feel able to speak openly and listen carefully, and that, ultimately, our class discussions will be fruitful. And I hope, in all of this, that we’ll have some fun.

Course Communications

I will use your UMN email addresses to communicate important course information to you; you are responsible for checking your email regularly. If you don’t use your university ID as your primary email address, be sure to forward the messages from that address to the address you check regularly. In return, my email address is the best and fastest way to reach me, and I check it several times a day (less often on weekends).

Required Texts

• Patricia Powell, The Pagoda
• Gisele Pineau, The Drifting of Spirits
• Lorna Goodison, Turn Thanks
• Loida Maritza Pérez, Geographies of Home
• Rosario Ferré, Eccentric Neighborhoods
• Lolita Hernandez, Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant

All of these texts are available from Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, 4755 Chicago Ave S, Mpls, 612-821-9630. Amazon will also be selling books in Room 112-D of the UTEC Building in Dinkytown from January 18 – 28, for your convenience. For more information about purchasing course texts from Amazon, see the flyer that accompanies this syllabus.

If you choose to buy your books online, I’d suggest buying the first and possibly even the second text from the bookstore, to make sure you have them in time. Our reading schedule will not be adjusted because books haven’t arrived from online suppliers in time.

Reserve Readings

In addition to the primary texts listed above, there will be several essays on Electronic Reserve with the library. These essays are part of the required reading of this course, and you are responsible for having read them by the period in which they will be discussed. To access the Electronic Reserve page for this course, follow one of these links: http://eres.lib.umn.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=28 (This goes directly to the course page, after you’ve logged in.) http://eres.lib.umn.edu/ (This goes to the front page of the ERes system, requiring you to search for this course’s page.) The password to access the course page is stew97b.

Students with Disabilities

I am happy (and it is University policy) to make any reasonable accommodations to make this course accessible. Any student with a documented disability condition who needs to arrange accommodations must contact me and Disability Services at the beginning of the semester or as soon as possible. Disability Services is at 180 McNamara Alumni Center, 612-626-1333 TTY/voice; their website is located at http://ds.umn.edu.

Attendance

You may miss the equivalent of one week (that is, two meetings) with no penalty. Your grade will be lowered by one step for each unexcused absence from three to five absences. If you miss the equivalent of three weeks (that is, six meetings) or more with unexcused absences, you may fail the course. If you have an excessive number of absences, even if they are excused, your grade may be lowered. In addition, if you are 20 or more minutes late to any class, it is considered an unexcused absence.

Excused absences include illness (you must bring a doctor’s note), death in the immediate family, jury duty, military service, religious holidays and participation (not as a spectator) in school sports events (see the CLA policy at http://www.cla.umn.edu/cgep/3.html). Excused absences do not include vacations, transportation problems, or employment. In the case of an excused absence, you should notify me of the excuse before the missed class, and certainly no later than 24 hours after.

Plagiarism – Take it seriously; I do!

Plagiarism, representing someone else’s intellectual work as your own, will result in a grade of F for the assignment, and may result in a grade of F for the course.

Plagiarism can mean submitting an assignment

• written by someone else as if it were yours
• written through inappropriate collaboration
• purchased, downloaded, or cut and pasted from the internet
• that does not properly acknowledge its sources.

► If you are in doubt about any portion of this statement, see me! ◄

See also http://www1.umn.edu/regents/policies/academic/StudentConductCode.html and http://www.osai.umn.edu/students.html.

Grading Policy

I grade according to the College of Liberal Arts guidelines. C represents basic fulfilment of the course requirements; to earn higher than a C, a student must achieve beyond the basic requirements.

F – Represents failure (or no credit) and means that work was either (i) completed at a level not worthy of credit, or (ii) not completed, with no agreement made regarding an incomplete

D – achievement worthy of credit, but failing to meet course requirements fully

C – achievement that meets the course requirements in every respect

B – achievement significantly above the level necessary to meet course requirements

A – achievement that is outstanding and unique relative to the course requirements

Please note that because the final project for this course is a collaborative project which you will complete in groups, only in extreme circumstances, and in consultation with your group members, will I grant an incomplete.

Assignments and Grade Breakdown

► You must submit all assignments in order to pass the course.
► Your grade for any assignment will be lowered by one step for each day that the assignment is late. In cases of illness, you must discuss an extended deadline with me. Please see the Course Calendar, below, for assignment due dates. Further details on expectations and requirements for all assignments will be given in class.

Book reviews, 3–4 pp - 25%

The book review must be on a text by the author on whom your small group is working – either the required text for this course, or another. (The idea in this assignment is to give you a “jump start” towards the critical discussion of the author’s work for your author entries. I suggest that you decide in your group who will review which book, so that together you cover a reasonable range of the author’s writing.) The finished book review, along with an image of the book cover, will be submitted to VG for publication on the website.

If your author has not published enough for each group member to review one book, you may pick another book by a Caribbean woman writer as long as it has not already been reviewed on the ReSound section of the VG website. Come see me with questions.

Annotated Bibliography and Related Links Page or Literature Review, 2–3 pp - 15%

Each student will write either an annotated bibliography and related links page about the author their group is working on, or a literature review of the available criticism about that author. (Again, my suggestion is that you agree in your groups who will do which assignment and how to divide the material that needs to be covered, so that this assignment feeds smoothly into the preparation of the first draft of your author entry.)

Class Presentations – 10%

In your author groups, you will do a presentation to the class on the day on which we begin discussing the assigned text written by your author (for example, if your group is working on Patricia Powell, your presentation will be on the day we begin discussing The Pagoda). Your presentations should provide the class with a context from which to discuss the text. Specifically, they should contain the following:

• biographical information about the author
• context for the book – important historical and/or geographical information
• if appropriate, an explanation of any cultural facts, references, bits of folklore, phrases, etc, that you consider important to understanding the text
• at least three discussion questions. The questions must be submitted to me via email at least 24 hours before the presentation.

Author entries, 10–14 pp - 40%

Working in small groups, you will, by the end of the semester, research, write, revise and submit a publishable author entry for the VG website, which will include audiovisual materials, biographical and bibliographical information, critical analysis, and online links to related web sites. You will also submit brief biographical statements on each group member, for posting on the Contributors section of the VG website. Please note that, because of the nature of the course, your group will not receive a passing grade for this assignment until it is accepted for publication by the VG editorial board.

► For the author entries and the book reviews (that is, for any assignment which is to be submitted to VG), the assignment won’t be considered complete until electronic copy of all materials has been received.

Participation – 10%

Your participation grade will reflect your attendance, preparation for and participation in class activities. Specifications for submitting author entries

1. You must submit an electronic copy of everything to be posted on the page. This includes the author entry itself, image files, and your biographical statements for the Contributors section.

2. All text files must be Microsoft Word documents.

3. All images should be separate JPEG files, not embedded in the text file, and of a suitable size to send by email.

4. You must submit copyright permissions forms, and/or proof of permission to use author photos, or proof of attempts to get such permission, with the project.

5. Files – both text and image – should be submitted by email to Dieter Bohn (bohn0025@umn.edu), and CC’d to me (mord0010@umn.edu). Hard copies (two per group) should be turned in to me, in person, on the last day of class.

Week 1
Tues 1/18 – Introductions, review syllabus and requirements. Discuss preliminary issues.	Thurs 1/20 – Dieter Bohn (VG). Visit VG; audiovisual materials; web resources; copyright procedure. Discuss expectations for your author entries. ERes article: Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory”.
Week 2
Tues 1/25 – Film: Life and Debt     Students pick authors and form groups	Thurs 1/27 – Discuss Life and Debt, and excerpt from A Small Place. Group time – Plan, brainstorm, organize the division of labour.
Week 3
Tues 2/1 – Library workshop with reference librarian Kim Clarke – Wilson Library S30C. Meet in lobby of Wilson.	Thurs 2/3 – Discuss: Powell, The Pagoda
Week 4
Tues 2/8 – Discuss: The Pagoda	Thurs 2/10 – Discuss: The Pagoda Also: Audiovisual material – what to use, where to find it. * Due: Book review
Week 5
Tues 2/15     Film – L’Homme sur les quais (The Man by the Shore)	Thurs 2/17  Finish screening film, and discuss Also: How to do an annotated bibliography, a literature review
Week 6
Tues 2/22 Discuss: Pineau, The Drifting of Spirits	Thurs 2/24 Discuss: The Drifting of Spirits   * Due: Annotated bibliography and links page
Week 7
Tues 3/1 Discuss: The Drifting of Spirits ERes article: Philip, “The Absence of Writing, or How I Almost Became a Spy”	Thurs 3/3 Visit to the Givens Collection – Meet in the lobby of Andersen Library, West Bank
Week 8
Tues 3/8 ERes article: Cliff, “If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire”   * Due: Literature review	Thurs 3/10 Group time to work on author entries Also: How to transition from book reviews to the criticism section of your author entry
Week 9
Tues 3/15            Spring Break – no class	Thurs 3/17           Spring Break – no class
Week 10
Tues 3/22 Discuss: Goodison, Turn Thanks (poems TBA)	Thurs 3/24 Discuss: Turn Thanks (poems TBA)   * Due: First draft of complete author entry
Week 11
Tues 3/29 No class – mandatory conferences with Rachel to discuss first drafts and her comments	Thurs 3/31 Discuss: Pérez, Geographies of Home
Week 12
Tues 4/5 Discuss: Geographies of Home	Thurs 4/7 Discuss: Geographies of Home
Week 13
Tues 4/12 Discuss: Ferré, Eccentric Neighborhoods   * Due: Second draft of author entry (to VG board)	Thurs 4/14 Discuss: Eccentric Neighborhoods
Week 14
Tues 4/19 Discuss: Eccentric Neighborhoods ERes article: Benjamin, “The Task of the Translator”	Thurs 4/21 Second draft back from VG board – group time to discuss comments, plan final revisions
Week 15
Tues 4/26 Discuss: Hernandez, Autopsy of an Engine (stories TBA)	Thurs 4/28 Discuss: Autopsy of an Engine (stories TBA)
Week 16
Tues 5/3 Autopsy of an Engine (stories TBA) ERes article: Hoving, “On the Hybridity of Cross-Cultural Dialogue”	Thurs 5/5 Course evaluation and wrap-up   * Due: Author entry, final version (including electronic copy and copyright permissions)