ENGL 360 Office Hours: TR 12:00-1:00 and MTRF 2:30-3:20PM by appointment: 5242 or 654-5178 Newton 212 [email protected] Welles 225A

Post-Colonial Literature: Black British Literature Fall 2014 Maria Helena Lima Course Description: "The imperial English may have carried British passports--as did the Scots, Welsh, and some of the Irish--but they really didn't need to think too hard about whether being 'English' was the same as being 'British': the terms were virtually interchangeable" (Jeremy Paxman, The English: A Portrait of A People, vii).

Due to successive waves of immigration by commonwealth peoples, only 80% of the population of England and Wales have called themselves “White: British” on the last census (2011). But Black presence in Britain dates to as far back as the invading Roman army. Steve Martin, the historian who runs the “ Black Heritage Walking Tours,” claims that “you can throw a dart at any area of London and find a black contribution to its history.” We will only have time to explore Black British literature and culture from 1948 to the present however. While Black in the US refers mostly to peoples of African descent—whatever their countries of origin—in Britain it is a political category grounded on shared ex-colonial origins and/or social marginalization. Unlike writers of the first wave of post-colonial migrants to Britain, such as Sam Selvon, who have lived the contradictions of being Black and British, a younger generation finds itself less conflicted as it attempts to (re)create identities within more global paradigms. According to Stuart Hall, “Black British culture is today confident beyond its own measure in its own identity—secure in a difference which it does not expect, or want to go away. We are fully confident in our own difference, no longer caught in the trap of aspiration which was sprung on so many of us who are older, as part of the colonial legacy described in Fanon’s famous phrase as Black skins, white mask.” Some of the texts we’ll be reading even allow for a more fluid, transnational and transcultural model for both the production and consumption of art.

Required Readings: James Procter, Ed. Writing Black Britain, 1948-1998: an Interdisciplinary Anthology. U of Manchester Press, 2000. [ISBN# 071905382x] Sam Selvon. The Lonely Londoners. Longman, 1956. [ISBN # 978-0582642645] Meera Syal. Anita and Me. Harper Collins, 1996. [9780006548768] . Small Island. Review, 2004. [9780312424671] . Mr. Loverman. Hamish Hamilton, 2013. [ISBN #9780241145784] Ade Solanke. Pandora’s Box. Oberon Books, 2012. [ISBN: 9781849434973] Kwame Dawes, Ed. Red: Contemporary Black British Poetry. Peepal Tree Press, 2010. [ISBN# 9781845231293]

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Intended Learning Outcomes: With this class students will hopefully 1. Understand the complex interactions of gender, sexuality, religion, race, and class permeating the cultures within Britain today; 2. Understand the various negotiations Black British writers make when they choose to write within/against traditionally western genres. 3. Demonstrate the oral ability to present their individual ideas to the class and persuasively discuss the complexity of the texts and cultures under discussion and, consequently, their different interpretations. 4. Demonstrate the ability to write sustained, coherent, analytical, and persuasive arguments, following the conventions of Standard English. 5. Demonstrate the ability to develop research skills, including the ability to search data bases, evaluate published materials, and incorporate information gleaned from articles of literary criticism, source texts, and works of historical/social background into their own critical writing skills to produce a final research paper.

Teaching Assistants  We’re really lucky to have Hannah Pruch working with our class this term. She will teach when I’m away at a meeting (or two), help me with group work and class discussions, and hold office hours to answer your questions about the readings and/or the writing you will be doing. . Hannah can be reached at 585-808-3648 [like me only until 9 p.m.] and preferably by email at hcp3@geneseo. edu. We will decide on the time for her office hour together.

Portfolio Grading: The writing assignments you turn in are first drafts. While they should be free of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes (i.e. not rough drafts), they won’t be finished products. Think of them as work-in-progress—not graded until revised and reworked to “perfection.” Your portfolio will be an extension and development of your work during the semester. Do not lose any version of your essays because I do not have a grade book. Keep all your writings in a folder because I will collect everything yet one more time on the last day of class, to reach a final decision about your grade. This course is non-graded until the very end of the semester. You must complete ALL written work to pass the course. You are also responsible for ALL readings--whether or not we have time to fully discuss them. Your final grade will depend upon attendance, active and engaged class participation (25%), and progress in writing critically: a midterm essay and all its revisions (25%) and a final essay of literary criticism that incorporates recent scholarship (50% includes the oral presentation of your argument) will be assessed. Books need to come to class every day—readings done. It is the only way you will be ready to engage in class discussion meaningfully. I will give the class a quiz if the discussion is going nowhere.

WRITING: Papers are to be typed, preferably Times New Roman 11’ font, with 1.5 spacing and one-inch margins at the top, bottom, and sides of your text; do not justify your text. Your name, the title of the course, my name, and the date the paper is turned in should be typed on the top-left of the page, single-spaced; the title should be centered on the page, two spaces below all that. There will a header with your last name and page number starting on page 2. No header on title page (yes, this is the only time we will not follow MLA conventions). The paper should be stapled together—never a fancy folder or cover page. 2

THE CENTER FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: Tutors at the Writing Learning Center (210 Milne Library) can help you with brainstorming ideas, organization, some grammar, and revision. For more information or to schedule an appointment, go to http: //www.geneseo.edu/english/writing_center. Do not wait until the paper is due to seek help. SUNY Geneseo will make reasonable accommodations for students with documented physical, emotional or learning disabilities. You should contact the Assistant Dean for Disability Services (Dr. Tabitha Buggie-Hunt, Erwin 106A, #245-5112) and also talk to me to discuss needed accommodations as early as possible in the semester (preferably the first week).

SCHEDULE OF READINGS: This schedule may change at any time according to class needs and demands. When a teacher puts a syllabus together, she does not know what to expect, for each group is different. Even if it is a text she has taught before, some students may find different meanings in it and want to stay with the work longer than anticipated--I will allow this to happen. You need to be in class to note such changes or resort to the class list (our email addresses and phone numbers) to inquire about them. The class list is also a wonderful way to build community and make lasting friendships. Get to know one another PLEASE.

Week One (8/25-29) – Introduction to the course and to “black” in Britain. Portfolio grading explained. Lemn Sissay’s “Colour Blind” and Louise Bennett’s “Colonisation in Reverse” (handout). Andrea Levy’s “Loose Change” (handout).

Week Two (9/ 2- 5)— Sam Selvon. Lonely Londoners (1956)

Week Three (9/ 8-12)— Read James Procter’s “General Introduction: 1948/1998, Periodising postwar black Britain” (1-12) and Part One: 1948 to late 1960s (13-54). I want to focus on Lord Kitchener, James Berry, Mervyn Morris, Kamau Brathwaite, and V.S. Naipaul, but may be persuaded otherwise  Note a chronology of key moments, movements and publications (Procter 321-23). Read also Lamming’s “Journey to an Expectation,” C.L.R. James’ “Africans and Afro- Caribbeans: A Personal View,” ’s “Blacks and Crime in Postwar Britain,” and Stuart Hall’s “Reconstructing Work: Images of Postwar Black Settlement.” [Procter, Ed. 57-93]

Week Four (9/15-19)-- Read all of Procter’s Part Two: Late 1960s to mid-1980s I want to focus on Linton Kwesi Johnson’s “Five Nights of Bleeding” (1974), Grace Nichols’ “Skanking Englishman between Trains” (1983) and “The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping” (1984), and Beryl Gilroy’s “Black Teacher” (1976); Sivanandan’s “Britain’s Gulags,” Dick Hebdige’s “Reggae, Rastas and Rudies” and Hall and others’ “Policing the Crisis.”

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Week Five (9/22-26)– Read Procter’s Part Three: mid-1980s to late 1990s We’ll start with Caryl Phillips’ “Coming Over,: Fred D’Aguiar’s “Home,” Jackie Kay’s “In My Country,” Merle Collins’ “Visiting Yorkshire—Again” and “When Britain Had its GREAT, and Meera Syal’s “Finding My Voice.”

Week Six (9/29-10/3)— Meera Syal. Anita and Me (1996)

Week Seven (10/6-10)—Procter’s Part Three: mid-1980s to late 1990s: READ Hanif Kureishi’s “We’re Not Jews” (1997), Benjamin Zephaniah’s “What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us” (1998). Stuart Hall, “New Ethnicities” (1988), Isaac Julien and Kobena Mercer, “De Margin and de Centre” (1988), Kobena Mercer, “Back to My Routes: A Postcript to the 1980s” (1990).

Week Eight (10/16-17)—Andrea Levy. Small Island (2004) Midterm Essay Due

Week Nine (10/20-24)-- Small Island

Week Ten (10/27-31)— Bernardine Evaristo. Mr. Loverman (2013)

Week Eleven (11/3-7)— Ade Solanke. Pandora’s Box (2012)

Week Twelve (11/10-14)-- Kwame Dawes, Ed. Red: Contemporary Black British Poetry (2010)—You will choose the poems we’ll be discussing in class today.

Week Thirteen (11/17-21)— Poems in Red

Week Fourteen (11/24-25)—Oral Presentations of Research Argument

Week Fifteen (12/1-5)-- Oral Presentations of Research Argument

Week Sixteen (12/8)—Editing Day for Research Paper (REQUIRED) Study Day is Tuesday, December 9th—office hour will be announced

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Final Exam – Friday 12/12, 3:30-6:30 PM RESEARCH PAPER DUE/whole portfolio due. Self-evaluations

Final Thoughts: (1)If coming to every class is going to be a problem, this course is not for you. What happens in every class cannot be made up by borrowing notes or doing extra work. You will not earn an A, for example, if you miss more than three classes—and please do not kill your grandmother or any other relative in an attempt to justify your absence. I will ask for the funeral information. In order for this class to run smoothly each of us must make a commitment to come every day, to be here on time, and to meaningfully engage the readings, the writing, and the rewriting. (2) You should keep all your work (with my comments) in a folder—I do NOT have a grade book. Really. (3) If you fall behind, TALK TO ME. Don't disappear. I usually do not assign late penalties, but don't take advantage of that. (4) Plagiarism is intolerable. Attend one of Milne’s workshops (days listed below) if you are in doubt about what constitutes plagiarism: Wednesday, September 10, 4:30-5:20 Room: Milne 121 Tuesday, September 16, 3:30-4:20 Room: Milne 104 Thursday, September 18, 6:00-6:50 Room: Milne 121 Wednesday, September 24, 7:00-7:50 Room: Milne 104 Friday, September 26, 2:30-3:20 Room: Milne 121 Monday, September 29, 4:00-4:50 Room: Milne 121 Wednesday, October 1, 6:00-6:50 Room: Milne 104 Tuesday, October 7, 3:30-4:20 Room: Milne 105 Thursday, October 9, 5:00-5:50 Room: Milne 121 Wednesday, October 15, 5:00-5:50 Room: Milne 105 Monday, October 20, 4:00-4:50 Room: Milne 104 Thursday, October 23, 7:00-7:50 Room: Milne 104

Guiding Questions for When You Revise your Early Drafts: 1. Does the introduction to the paper provide the background you need to understand the argument/ analysis that follows? Does it attract your interest? How would you improve it? Write down the essay’s argument in your own words, as you understand it from reading the introduction. 2. Read every topic sentence of every paragraph at least twice. Does it introduce the paragraph well? Does it flow nicely from the last sentence of the paragraph that precedes it? SUGGEST WAYS OF IMPROVING TRANSITIONS and topic sentences. 3. Does the writer use quotations well? Circle at least two examples in the paper itself. Are there page numbers after every quote? Does the writer remember how to punctuate with quotation marks? How well do the quotes contribute to and support the writer’s argument?

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MARK ANY HIT-AND-RUN QUOTATION(S). Is there any section in the paper that would benefit from more quotes from the text? How many indented quotes are there? Are they also double-spaced without quotation marks and period inside the parentheses? Remember that you only indent if the quote is longer than four lines (we are using the MLA format). 4. How much does the writer vary the way to introduce her quotes? Evaluate all verbs used to introduce quotes. Suggest ways of improving them. Remember that “SAY” is a weak verb. 5. Can you recognize the writer’s voice, the writer ethos, throughout the paper? Mark the passages in the paper where you miss the writer’s presence. 6. Pretend you are not the writer of this essay. Anticipate possible objections to your argument. Write plausible refutations. 7. Has the writer varied her sentence structure often enough? Could she have combined sentences more effectively? Remember “the arms of your sentence” (107). 8. Read over the concluding paragraph. Does it merely summarize the paper? What emotion/idea/ question does the writer try to leave you with? 9. Has the writer used the Present Tense consistently? 10. Do you find the title catchy? Appropriate as a “doorway into your argument?” Suggest another one if you are not satisfied. 11. Check the paper for any mechanical or grammatical problems. FIX THEM.

The Research Paper: The first step for the success of this assignment requires that you have something to argue about either the play, Pandora’s Box, OR any of the poems in Red. Like before, I will not tell you what your argument is. A good starting point, obviously, is for you to find out information on the author and the context behind the text. Once you know more about both, you will be better equipped to focus your questions to develop your own original thesis. The more focused the argument, the stronger the paper. Pay special attention to focusing your introduction. I usually write my introductions last. You only really know what the paper is going to accomplish once you are done drafting it. The introduction makes a promise it must fulfill. Think of a catchy title and of a first sentence that will really grab your reader. Finally, make sure your introduction announces the organizational layout of the whole paper. It must. Remember that you may change the sequence of paragraphs (the organization of the paper) for the best effect as many times as you revise, so you need to make sure transitions are always present and topic sentences are focused enough. Remember that topic sentences advance the argument and are (preferably) thematically connected to the whole. Remember also to write in the Present Tense throughout (reading the paper out loud more than once is the only way to spot tense inconsistency). Avoid unnecessary repetition of words—it’s one of my pet-peeves. Another important aspect of a successful research paper is for you to vary your sources: a book, an essay from a critical anthology, a journal article, a web source, a published interview perhaps. All your references must be recent (within the last five years) otherwise your teacher may suspect plagiarism. Make sure you achieve a balance between instances where you paraphrase what other writers have said (you still need to use the MLA format for parenthetical citations) and times

6 when direct quotes are required. Are you ultimately in charge of the researched material? You will write in the first person point of view, and vary the way to bring other voices into your “symphony” (vary the ways to introduce quotes). Figure what the quote is doing and introduce it properly: according to “so and so,” “so and so” suggests, notes, emphasizes, argues, points out, claims, rejects, etc. should be used accordingly (refer to the list of verbs in our course packet).

I need to hear your voice (ethos) throughout. You need to sound intelligent and balanced for your claims to be considered. Never praise the author of the text you are writing about. And PLEASE do not sound condescending. Your audience is someone who knows the text very well, so avoid paraphrasing without purpose. Remember that chronology is NEVER the best way to organize your argument. Anticipate possible objection(s) to your argument and build plausible refutations. If there is a passage in the text you’re writing about that contradicts what you are saying, do not hope that Maria will not know it’s there… Bring it in. Your argument will be stronger if you attempt to refute such objections as you develop the essay. Finally, a strong conclusion does not merely repeat everything you have already said in the paper.

EDITING QUESTIONS FOR THE RESEARCH PAPER (You are required to have a draft for editing day on the last day of class): 1. Does the introduction to the paper provide the background you need to understand the argument/ analysis that follows? Notice that an introduction can be more than one paragraph. Does it attract your interest? How would you improve it? Formulate the central research question/argument as you understand it from reading this introduction. 2. What is the writer’s answer to that question? Is the answer clearly developed? Argumentative? Logically sound? How so  3. Does the writer use quotations well? Circle at least two examples in the paper itself. Are there page numbers after every quote? Does the writer remember how to punctuate with quotation marks? How well do the quotes contribute to and support the writer’s argument? MARK ANY HIT-AND-RUN QUOTATION(S). Is there any section in the paper that would benefit from more quotes from the text? How many indented quotes are there? Are they 1.5 spaced without quotation marks and period inside the parentheses? Remember that you only indent if the quote is longer than four lines (we are using the MLA format). 4. Does the writer use criticism/researched material well? How much does she vary the way to introduce her sources? Suggest ways of improving that. Remember: first time you introduce a critic use WHOLE name. You cannot merely use the parenthetical citation. Use the last name after that. 5. Are the sources varied? Recent? Evaluate use of MLA format throughout and for the “Works Cited” page. 6. Describe the writer’s organizational strategy paragraph by paragraph. Is there any point in which the structure of the paper becomes unclear? Evaluate transitions and topic sentences and suggest ways of improving them when necessary. 7. Can you recognize the writer’s voice, the writer ethos, throughout the paper? Mark the passages in the paper where you miss the writer’s presence.

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8. Do you feel you understand the text better now than you did before reading this paper? If yes, explain how. 9. Do you disagree with any of the assertions made about the text, either interpretations or evaluations? Are there ways in which you would have handled the argument differently? Suggest ways in which the writer might incorporate your objections (by refuting them) into the paper. 10. Read over the concluding paragraph. Does it merely summarize the paper? What emotion/idea/ question does the writer try to leave you with? 11. Has the writer used the Present Tense consistently? 12. What is your most important suggestion for revision? 13. Tell me how reading this paper has given you a new perspective on the essay you are working on yourself? Or not  14. Do you find the title appropriate to the argument? Is it catchy? Can you suggest another one? ***

Fall 2014 Campus Events: Write a response for extra credit  All extra-credit responses belong in your portfolio [after I have read them]—You are NOT to revise them. You must hand them in soon after the event. Of course campus events that count for extra credit are the ones that have some relevance to the class. For example, I’ll announce English Department readings and other events as they come to my attention. They count as extra credit only if you write a response. September 15th, Monday, at 7:30 PM in the Doty Recital Hall. "Wildness and the Preservation of the World: From Walden Pond to the 1964 Wilderness Act and Beyond" is the 2014 Walter Harding Lecture, which will be delivered by renowned environmental historian William Cronon. For more details, go to https://sunygeneseoenglish.wordpress.com/2014/08/14/william-cronon-to-deliver-2014-walter- harding-lecture/

September 23, Tue, 4:00-7:00 pm, CU Ballroom Study Abroad Fair October 15th, Wednesday, 2:30-4:45. Welles Lounge. English Department Alumni Lecture by Stephanie Iasiello (Emory University): “Righting and Re-Writing: The Neo-Slave Narrative and the Novel” October 29, Wed, 2:30-3:45 pm, CU Ballroom, All-College Hour Speaker Series Erika Meitner, poetry reading. Associate Professor of English, Virginia Tech. Her first two books of poetry received national awards. http://erikameitner.com/about-erika/ November 1, Sat, CU Ballroom Intercultural Night. Dinner prepared by many multicultural student organizations.

November 12, Wed, 2:30-3:45 pm, CU Ballroom, All-College Hour Speaker Series Cate Marvin, award-winning poet and CUNY Professor of English, College of Staten Island as well as MFA instructor, Columbia University. Co-founded VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.

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