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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2020/2021

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : English Literature

Undergraduate Course: The Black Atlantic (ENLI10183)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryA study of racial discourse in American and British literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. In particular, the role of 'race' in constructions of modernity and identity will be evaluated.
Course description Methodologies of the Black Atlantic: Race, Representation, and Resistance
Paul Gilroy, 'The Black Atlantic as a Counterculture of Modernity'
Christina Sharpe, 'The Wake'
Josiah Wedgwood, Am I Not a Man and a Brother (Stafford, 1787); Slave Ship Brooks (Liverpool, 1788); John Comber, A Poor African (London,1861). [all hand-outs supplied]

Loophole of Retreat: Tracing Transatlantic Black Womanist Literary Paradigms
Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince (1831); Mary Seacole, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (1857)

Negotiating Femininity: Tracing Transatlantic Black Womanist Literary Paradigms Part II
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1860) [available online at Documenting the American South]

Intersections, Liminality, and the Limits of Freedom
William and Ellen Craft, Running A Thousand Miles (1860)
Henry 'Box' Brown, Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown (1851) [available online at Documenting the American South]; see also 'The Mirror of Slavery'

'No Right to be a Hero': African Atlantic Acts and Arts of Revolution and Resistance - Toussaint Louverture, Sengbe Pieh and Harriet Tubman
John Barber, A History of the Amistad (1840); William Wells Brown, St. Domingo (1855); Sarah Bradford, Harriet, the Moses of Her People (1869). ). [available online at Documenting the American South] [selected excerpts]

Authorship, Artistry and Black Masculinity
Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and William Wells Brown, Travels in Europe (1852) [selected excerpts]

Reconstruction, Discrimination, and 'Living While Black'
Ida B. Wells The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Campaigner. (new ed. 2014). [selections] To consult website: Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America.

Black Intellectual Traditions, Education and Uplift
Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice from the South (1892) Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901) and W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903). [selected excepts]

Africa in an Atlantic Imaginary
Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood (1902-3).

Speculative Futures: Legacies of Experiment and Literatures of Errantry in the Wake
Selected work by Derek Walcott, Robert Hayden, Douglass Kearney, M. NourbeSe Philip, Audre Lorde, Mark Dery [all provided on LEARN, but you can look all these authors up online ahead of time if you're keen, which I sincerely hope you are]

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed: ( English Literature 1 (ENLI08001) OR Scottish Literature 1 (ENLI08016)) AND ( English Literature 2 (ENLI08003) OR Scottish Literature 2 (ENLI08004) OR American Literature 2 (ENLI08006))
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs Essential course texts.
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2020/21, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  12
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Other Study Hours 10, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 166 )
Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) 1 hour per week for 11 weeks autonomous learning
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) One Coursework Essay of 2,500 words: 30%
One time-limited Final Essay of 3000 words: 60%
Class Participation Assessment: 10%
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
Ability to apply a theoretical literary model across disparate texts. Increased knowledge and understanding of transatlantic cultural formations. Enhanced understanding of 'race' as a constructed social/literary category
Reading List
Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince (1831)
Mary Seacole, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (1857)
William and Ellen Craft, Running A Thousand Miles (1860)
Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855)
Ida B. Wells: The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Campaigner.
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901)
Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood (1902-3).
Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice from the South (1892)
W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
Additional Information
Course URL https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/undergraduate/current/honours
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Special Arrangements Numbers are limited and students taking degrees not involving English or Scottish literature need the written approval of the head of English Literature
KeywordsENLI10183 Black Atlantic
Contacts
Course organiserDr Patricia Malone
Tel: (0 131 6)50 8618
Email: Patricia.Malone@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Kara McCormack
Tel: (0131 6)50 3030
Email: Kara.McCormack@ed.ac.uk
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