English 318 - Seminar: Topics in American Literature-Race and the Long Poem

Sem:T-Race&Long Poem

Spring
2024
02
4.00
Melissa Parrish

TH 1:20 PM - 4:00 PM

Smith College
ENG-318-02-202403
Seelye 311
mparrish@smith.edu
Literary scholar Erica Edwards defines “imperial grammars” as cultural “codes of race, gender and sexuality” influenced by U.S. empire. This course considers how book-length experimental poems trouble these or similar grammars, and how these poems imaginatively conceive of a world outside their constraints. Discussions include legacies of enslavement and colonization, borders and border controls, environmental racism, and stolen lands and histories. The course fosters a shared anti-racist pedagogy by determining what imperial grammars dominate classroom practices—and by collectively determining new practices to write into being. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

[CE] JR/SR only

Permission is required for interchange registration during the add/drop period only.
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