Course Description
Exploration of the ways in which American slavery has been
conveyed in American popular culture through the juxtaposition
of scholarly work, novels and short stories, and film, ranging
from the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Faulkner, and
Toni Morrison to that of Alex Haley and Steven Spielberg.
Athena Title
Slavery Fact Fiction Film Hon
Prerequisite
Permission of Honors
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about the history U.S. slavery by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of slavery in fiction and film helped diverse social and cultural attitudes toward race, ethnicity, slavery, and abolition, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to generate their own research question or topic, locate suitable primary and secondary sources, and synthesize their ideas in novel ways.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to initiate, manage, complete, and evaluate their independent research projects in stages and to give and receive constructive feedback through the peer review process.
Topical Outline
- Examples of fictional works to be studied:
Harriet Beecher Stowe, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
Herman Melville, BENITO CERENO
Mark Twain, PUDD'NHEAD WILSON or HUCKLEBERRY FINN
William Faulkner, several short stories
William Styron, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER
John Ehle, THE JOURNEY OF AUGUST KING
Toni Morrison, BELOVED or A MERCY
- Examples of films to be studied:
"Amistad"
"The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman"
- To elaborate on the use of the sources named above, and how they will be utilized, we plan to link each fictional work and/or film with a historical document or scholarship through which we will explore the juxtaposition of historical reality and other types of "truths" drawn from the literary or film treatments. For example, we would use Stowe's UNCLE TOM'S CABIN to explore the abolitionist movement of the late antebellum era and how the novel and its impact served to stir popular sentiment and intensified the politicalization of anti-slavery forces that drove the sectional crisis of the 1850s; we'd also use the novel to explore northern perceptions of slave life and slave treatment and the sources Stowe drew on (most notably Josiah Henson's narrative) to create her remarkably powerful fictionalized account. We'd use Melville's BENITO CERENO in conjunction with Spielberg's film "Amistad" to explore the Atlantic slave trade and legal and humanitarian issues raised by the actual Amistad case and Melville's novella loosely based on it. We'd use Toni Morrison's BELOVED to look at issues of fugitive slaves and their experiences after moving North, as illustrated by the Margaret Garner story -- an actual incident of a slave mother's killing of her own children to prevent them from being captured and sent back into slavery after their escape. Styron's THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER can be easily compared with the actual confession he made to a lawyer in 1831 before his execution, and allows entry into a range of issues, including slave rebellion, Turner's iconic stature within much of the black community then and well into the 20th century, which made Styron's depiction of him so objectionable and controversial when the novel appeared in 1967. We'd use Mark Twain's PUDD'NHEAD WILSON to explore issues of miscegenation and mixed-race identities, and use several court cases, particularly that of Sally Muller in New Orleans, that served as inspirations for Twain's detective novel; and we plan to use John Ehle's novel THE JOURNAL OF AUGUST KING and the film version of it to examine slavery in non-traditional settings like So. Appalachia. Novels and film adaptations of Alex Haley's ROOTS and Ernest Gaines' THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN will illustrate a new popular interest in the slave experience and its legacy in the 1970s and beyond. We would likely spend a full two weeks on UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, and a week to a week and a half on most of the other works, depending on the length of reading assignments and supplementary materials used with them. As an honors course, we would like to see students writing a number of papers -- both reaction papers to the novels and films, and research projects involving deeper exploration into the issues raised by the assigned work.
Institutional Competencies
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
Social Awareness & Responsibility
The capacity to understand the interdependence of people, communities, and self in a global society.
