Ways of Reading: Strange Inheritance
ENGL 201R
Fall 2025
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01
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Language precedes us. Nay, writing does. What do "we" do with this inheritance? What is the relationship between language, writing, speech, technology, and violence in the "strange inheritance" configured in this course? And what specific insights into that relationship does this uncanny thing called "English" reveal? This foray into the English major weaves together Caribbean and British literature with literary and critical theory that meditate sometimes literally on each other and always on "shared" linguistic and colonial heritages--ones alternately preserved, cursed, and/or set on fire. We will reckon with "inheritance" as a figure and unravel what is destructive, desirous, and gothic in it by reading: Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John and Lucy; Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea; Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre; and parts of Gayatri Spivak's A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of the Vanishing Present. All of these texts structure and deconstruct themselves via unruly "feminine" figures who happen, also, to be damningly good readers. Supplemental to our readings of the aforementioned are select poems by Aimé Césaire, Derek Walcott, and William Wordsworth; selections from Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks; key works of structural linguistics and deconstruction; and some cinema. The framework and assignments are designed with both the literary and creative writing tracks of the major in mind. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (Caribbean Studies Minor)(English)(Social, Cultural and Critical Theory Certificate) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Course pack consisting of some of the aforementioned and select books available at RJ Julia Bookstore. Films: Jane Eyre (Dir. Fukunaga, 2011) and Wide Sargasso Sea (Dir. Duigan, 1993).
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Examinations and Assignments:
Reading journal, short essay (¿close reading¿ of assigned text), experimental project on a literary/writerly lineage of the student¿s design, final annotated bibliography toward a future research paper. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Gateway course for English major. Priority enrollment will be given to prospective English majors during Drop/Add. |
| Instructor(s): Ellis Neyra,Ren Times: .M.W... 10:50AM-12:10PM; Location: ZLKA202; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 0 | JR major: 0 | | |
| Seats Available: 12 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 13 | FR: 1 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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