sample syllabi- literature

These are all "dream courses." However, I have taught only the survey of American Lit course; the rest are proposed courses that I could teach immediately. I have more courses prepared, and would be happy to send copies on request.

• Survey of American Literature: Call & Response of the American Canon: Major authors from Colonial to Contemporary period. Sophomore seminar. Can be adapted for upper division courses. Approaches canonical & "minor" texts and the idea that all literature has a "call" and "response" format, adapting this African American literary trope for broader conversations about what makes a canon. Taught at LSUS Fall 2007 & Spring 2008.
• Studies in American Literature II: The African-American Novel: a course from the 19th-Century to the contemporary era featuring novels written by African-American writers. For graduate or upper division students.
• Studies in American Literature: Speculative Fiction of the African Diaspora: a course that covers short stories and novels of writers from the 19th to the 21st century writing what is commonly thought of as Science Fiction. Explores conjure, Africa as homeland, and the future.
• Periods in American Literature: Women Naturalists & the 20th Century Novel: why is it that women writers are rarely mentioned as using Literary Naturalism?
• Women's Coming of Age novels: A graduate or senior level seminar on the contemporary women's bildungsroman in English.
• Major American Authors: Zora Neale Hurston: "Genius of the South." A graduate level seminar on one major author whose influence is felt in many places. Hurston was a folklorist, novelist, memoirist and character of the Harlem Renaissance.
• The Post Feminist(?) Era: Issues in Contemporary Women's Writing: This course uses a Third Wave feminist rhetoric deeply grounded in Second Wave Feminism and Theory. We read nonfiction, fiction, poetry, memoir/diary/letters and personal interviews. We will begin with a grounding in traditional women's theory on gender as "made" not "born".