ENGL4440 · English

Uncomfortable Spaces in American Literature

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

This class will focus on the embodiment of marginalized subjects defined through the lens of race and ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity and sexual orientation -- as represented in the spatial dynamics of American literature of the last century. We will consider how space both shapes and reflects identity in fiction, memoir, and poetry. How do literary depictions of rooms, houses, farms, factories, cities, towns, and natural spaces offer insight into the characters who live in and move through them? How do the material forms of the body and the less accessible forms of the human psyche lend themselves to spatial depictions? Finally, how do different genres situate the works we read in the space of literary form? Texts may include Nella Larsen'sQuicksand,William Faulkner'sSanctuary, Marilynne Robinson'sHousekeeping, Alison Bechdel'sFun Home, Yaa Gyasi'sTranscendent Kingdom, Roz Chast'sCan't We Talk About Something More Pleasant, and poems by Robert Hayden, Sylvia Plath, torrin a. greathouse, and others. A series of student presentations will also highlight the representation of space in visual culture, including American films, paintings, and television shows of the last century.