USLA07: Memory and Modernity: American and Singaporean Literature in Context

Syllabus

Week 1 (July 29-Aug 2)

• Course introduction. First Paper Assignment. Discussion Group.
• Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, xxxi-47; Du Bois, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" (concentrate on the first 5 paragraphs).

Week 2 (Aug 5-9)

• Johnson, 48-92. Presentations: jazz and ragtime, Homer v. Plessy and the "one drop-rule," civil war and reconstruction. New York Skyline (1908)

Week 3 (Aug 12-16)

• Johnson, 92-154; vii-xxvii. Presentations: lynching, passing.
• First Paper Due. Screening of The Jazz Singer. Second paper Assignment.

Week 4 (Aug 19-23)

• Rogin, Black Face, White Noise, 81-120. Edison, New York City "ghetto" fish market (1903); Move On (1903); "Cattle Driven to Slaughter" (1897), "Emmigrants Landing at Ellis Island" (1903). (I'll screen these films in class.)
• Yezierska, Bread Givers, 1-52. Presentations: immigration, Rockefeller. Student Responses.

Week 5 (Aug 26-30)

• Yezierska, 53-128. Student Responses. Presentations: industrialization, sweat shops and life in the NY ghetto.
• Yezierska, 129-201. Student Responses. Strand photographs.

Week 6 (Sep 2-6)

• Yezierska, 202-256. Steiglitz photographs.
• Yezierska, 257-297. Student responses.

Week 7 (Sep 9-13): Recess

Week 8 (Sep 16-20)

• Draft of Second Paper Due: Paper workshop. (Bring 3 copies of your paper.) Third Paper Assignment.
• Final Draft of Second Paper Due. Poems: Robert Yeo, "9th August 1965"; Edwin Thumboo, "9th of August-I," "9th of August-II" (course reader). Presentations: the history of Singaporean independence

Week 9 (Sep 23-27)

• Jeyaretnam, Abraham's Promise, 11-65. Presentations: colonialism and postcolonialism. Student Responses.
• Jeyaretnam, 66-120. Presentations: colonial education, nation-building in Singapore.

Week 10 (Sep 30-Oct 4)

• Jeyaretnam, 121-157. Student Responses.
• Jeyaretnam, 157-178. Holden, "The Significance of Uselessness: Resisting Colonial Masculinity in Philip Jeyaretnam's Abraham's Promise." Student Responses.

Week 11 (Oct 7-11)

• Poems. TBA
• Simon Tay, Stand Alone (selections TBA)

Week 12 (Oct 14-18)

• Tay
• Simon Tay visit?

Week 13 (Oct 21-25)

• Thumboo, selected poems (course packet); Tennyson, "Ulysses"; Lee, "The Merlion to Ulysses" (course packet); Sa'at, "The Merlion." Singapore poetry in English (audio files of Singaporean poets reading).
• Lee, selected poems (course packet); Lee, "A Postscript to 'My Country and My People" (course packet); Devan, "My Country and My People: Forgetting to Remember" (course packet).

Week 14 (Oct 28-Nov 1)

• Draft of Third Paper Due: Paper workshop. (Bring 3 copies of your paper.)

Final Draft of Paper due. Wednesday, November 6

Resources

First Paper Assignment.
Discussion Group
Presentations
Second Paper Assignment
Third Paper Assignment.
US Library of Congress: American Memory
The Singapore Web
The Postcolonial Web
Singapore Literature: A Select Bibliography of Critical Writings.