American Literary Expatriates in Europe
Glenda R. Carpio - Harvard University (carpio@fas.harvard.edu)
Teaching Assistant: Giovanna Micconi
Class time: tbc
Classroom: tbc
Course description
This course explores the fiction and travel literature produced by American writers living in Europe, from Henry James to the present. In the course of this period the relationship between Old to New World continuously evolves. While Europe becomes the battlefield for two bloody World Wars as well as the site of a museum past, the USA assumes a dominant role on the world stage. American writers living and traveling in Europe reflect on these shifts and changes while also exploring the complex set of contradictions that expatriate life reveals. For African American writers, for instance, Europe represents both a site of liberation from the oppression of American color codes and also an area of the world where they are often exoticized. We will focus on American literature set in Europe with readings that include but are not limited to essays, travelogues, poems, novellas, novels and short stories.
Formal requirements
Active participation in course, three papers (of 6 - 8pp. each), the last of which may be creative in nature (a travelogue of your time in Venice), a midterm, and final exam.
Drafts and Peer Editing: In this class you will produce essays through a series of drafts that you will share with your peers. Typically, your first draft will be due on the Monday of the week when your essay is due and the final draft will be due on the Wednesday of that week. We will spend part of class time sharing our drafts with each other and commenting and discussing how to revise. You need to bring two hard copies of your essay to class on the day that we do peer editing and to make sure that you have a fully finished first draft of your work that you are ready to share. Professor Carpio and Ms. Micconi will circulate possible topics well before your deadlines.
Academic Honesty: please be aware that plagiarism, the act of using other people's words and ideas as if they were your own, is a serious offense that can lead to expulsion from the course. If you quote from sources, if your ideas are indebted to them, or if you closely imitate the work of others, you MUST acknowledge them in your footnotes or endnotes. If you use phrases taken from sources, no matter how short in length, you must present these under quotations and provide the appropriate bibliographical information. If you are in doubt about the rules or how they apply to a particular case, please consult Professor Carpio or Ms. Micconi.
Required readings
- Henry James, Daisy Miller (1878), The Aspern Papers (1888)
- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Moveable Feast
- Henry Miller, The Tropic of Cancer (1934)
- James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room (1956)
Course Package:
- Henry James, “Italian Hours,” from Collected Travel Writing: The Continent (1993)
- T.S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” (1922)
- Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), selections
- Edith Wharton, "Roman Fever" (1934)
- Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (1940), selections
- F.O. Matthiessen, From the Heart of Europe (1948), selections
- Richard Wright, Pagan Spain (1957), selections
- Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (1958), selections
- James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son (1955), Part III (“Encounter on the Seine: Blacks Meets Brown,” “A Question of Identity,” “Equal in Paris,” “Stranger in the Village”)
- Eva Hoffman, Exit Into History: A Journey Through the New Eastern Europe (1995)
- Shay Younglood, Black Girl in Paris (2000), selections
Field Trips
To be confirmed
Grading
Class participation: 25%, three papers: 45%, Midterm: 10%, Final exam: 20%.
Office location, contact information, tutorial time: tbc
