ENGL-179 Staging Anti-Slavery

Faculty:

Cima, Gay

Students in American Studies, Performance Studies, African American Studies, Women’s Studies, Literary History, and Justice & Peace Studies may be especially interested in the material of this course.
We’ll examine late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century women’s anti-slavery texts, in hopes of understanding how concepts of religion, race, and gender became entangled during the formative years of the United States. What propels black and white women to enter the risky world of abolitionism, and how do they protect themselves as they enter fiercely contested public debates about race? What are the limits of their imaginings? What is the relationship between self-love and sympathy within women's abolitionist performances? We’ll track the changes in how abolitionists gained access to the public sphere or redefined the “private” sphere, and search out archival materials as we analyze anti-slavery poems, essays, plays, speeches, short stories, letters, and autobiographical novels. Our readings may include Phillis Wheatley’s poems, Susanna Rowson’s plays, Maria W. Stewart’s speeches, and Ellen Craft’s narrative, along with a host of lesser-known anti-slavery texts.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: ENGL 040, 041, 042, or 043

Other academic years
There is information about this course number in other academic years:

• 2004-2005 Fall and Spring
• 2005-2006 Fall and Spring
• 2006-2007 Fall and Spring
• 2008-2009 Fall and Spring
• 2009-2010 Fall and Spring

More information
Look for this course in the schedule of classes.

The academic department web site for this program may provide other details about this course.