Department of English

In this seminar, we will spend the first several weeks studying Saidiya Hartman’s masterwork: Scenes of Subjection. We will then proceed to her Wayward Lives and what Hilton Als has called the “not good” books of the novelist Gayl Jones, Mosquito, The Healing and Palmares. We will be attempting to find freedom where there is none, love where it cannot be had, community where there are only enemies. Assignments will consist of four 2-3 page response papers and rotating discussion leadership.