Course Instructor

The salutatorian of Clinton High School_'s Class of 1987 and co-valedictorian of Hamilton College's Class of 1991, Bruce Simon went on to earn his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Department of English at Princeton University, where he was a teaching assistant in English and Afro-American Studies and an instructor in the Princeton Writing Program. A former co-general editor of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, he has published essays in The Politics of Information (2004), The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States (2nd ed., 2001), Postcolonial Theory and the United States: Race, Ethnicity, and Literature (2000), and Race Consciousness: African-American Studies for the New Century (1997). As an assistant and now associate professor of English at SUNY Fredonia, he has taught courses in American, African-American, and world literature as well as in Multiethnic Studies and American Studies. With a sabbatical leave from SUNY Fredonia from fall 2006 to spring 2007 to enable him to serve as a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer at Kyushu University, Seinan Gakuin University, and Fukuoka University, he stepped down as Vice President for Academics of the Fredonia chapter of the SUNY faculty/professionals union, Chair of the university_fs Planning and Budget Advisory Committee, Associate Chair of the English Department, and University Senator. In addition to teaching courses in American Literature and American Studies in Fukuoka, Japan, he is currently working on a book manuscript, American Studies and the Race for Hawthorne, co-editing two collections of critical essays, tentatively entitled Echoes of Nuremberg and Trauma, Melancholia, and the Politics of Race, and posting regularly to his Hawthorne blog, Citizen of Somewhere Else (citizense.blogspot.com). For further information, please see his web site at www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/.

Course Description

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a major antebellum American writer known for his fictional explorations of colonial America, has been a key figure in American literary studies for many generations. Many important American writers have been influenced by and have responded to his short stories and novels; many influential American literary critics have made an engagement with his works a central part of their careers. Recently, postcolonial writers and critics have shown an interest in rereading and rewriting Hawthorne. In this course, we will explore the postcolonial dimensions of Hawthorne, using both historical and comparative methods.

Course Outline

Course Goals

• Students will gain an understanding of and begin to participate in debates over the term _gpostcolonial_h and within/over the field of Postcolonial Studies, including its relation to American Studies.
• Students will gain an understanding of and practice in using historical approaches to analyzing Hawthorne_fs major short stories.
• Students will gain an understanding of and practice in using comparative approaches to analyzing the relations between Hawthorne_fs novel The Scarlet Letter and at least one postcolonial novel in dialogue with it.

Course Texts

Please purchase Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, plus at least one of the following (students will choose which one [or more] to purchase):

• Maryse Conde, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem
• Toni Morrison, Beloved
• Bharati Mukherjee, The Holder of the World

Short stories and critical essays will be made available at no cost through on-line sources, including the SUNY Fredonia course ANGEL space I have created for you and the online journals to which the Seinan Gakuin University library provides you access.

Course Requirements

As this course combines lectures, activities, student presentations, and open, guided, and small-group discussion, regular classroom attendance is very important. One-third of your grade in the class will be based on my assessment of your preparation and participation, both for class and on the course ANGEL space. Another third of your grade will be based on a research-based presentation on a relation between a work or works by Hawthorne and by the postcolonial novelist of your choice. The final third of your grade will be based on a research paper (7-10 pages) due at the end of the semester.

Course Schedule

Week 1: Introductions, Goals, Expectations (11 April 2007). We_fll be getting to know each other and familiarizing ourselves with the set-up of the course.

Week 2: Definitions, Debates, Processes (18 April 2007). We_fll be considering various perspectives on the meaning, purpose, and stakes of American Studies and Postcolonial Studies, in order to clarify the particular focus and emphases of this course.

Week 3: Colonial Spaces (25 April 2007). We_fll be reading _gRoger Malvin_fs Burial_h (and, if you have time, _gWakefield,_h as well) in order to explore his representations of colonial spaces (particularly wilderness/city oppositions) and their stakes.

Week 4: Puritans and Their Others I (2 May 2007). We_fll be reading _gYoung Goodman Brown_h in order to explore his representations of colonial spaces, Puritans_f responses to them, and their stakes.

Week 5: Puritans and Their Others II (9 May 2007). We_fll be reading _gThe Maypole of Merry Mount_h in order to explore his representations of Puritans_f responses to difference and their stakes.

Week 6: Rewriting American Colonial History I (16 May 2007). We_fll be reading _gMain-Street_h to explore his representations of American Indians and their stakes for his understanding of seventeenth-century New England.

Week 7: Rewriting American Colonial History II (23 May 2007). We_fll be reading _gOld News_h to explore his representations of African Americans and their stakes for American nationalism in the revolutionary, early national, and antebellum periods.

Week 8: Postcolonial Gendering I (30 May 2007). We_fll be reading _gThe Birth-mark_h in order to explore his representations of the construction of femininity and whiteness and their stakes.

Week 9: Postcolonial Gendering II (6 June 2007). We_fll be reading _gRappaccini_fs Daughter_h for another take on this topic, this time with a focus on mixing rather than marking.

Week 10: The Custom-House and the Prison Door (13 June 2007). We_fll be discussing Hawthorne_fs representation of the circumstances of composition for The Scarlet Letter and other issues in _gThe Custom-House_h that may connect with postcolonial studies and comparing his representation of Puritan society in the opening chapters of the novel with those from the tales from Unit 2.

Week 11: Transatlantic Hester (20 June 2007). We_fll be discussing various aspects of Hawthorne_fs treatment of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter; of her relation to earlier female figures in Hawthorne_fs fiction; of her relation to Sethe from Morrison_fs Beloved; and of her use by Mukherjee and Conde in their novels.

Week 12: Chillingworth in/and/as the Wilderness (4 July 2007). We_fll be discussing various aspects of Hawthorne_fs treatment of Roger Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter; of his relation to earlier male figures in Hawthorne_fs fiction; of his relations with characters from Morrison_fs Beloved; and of his use by Mukherjee and Conde in their novels.

Week 13: Pearl, Dimmesdale, and the Problem of/with Purity (17 July 2007). We_fll be meeting at 5:10 in our regular classroom for our last meeting. We_fll be giving feedback on each other_fs work-in-progress talks and also be discussing various aspects of Hawthorne_fs treatment of Pearl and Reverend Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter; of their relation to earlier figures in Hawthorne_fs fiction; of their relation to characters from Morrison_fs Beloved; and of their use by Mukherjee and Conde in their novels.

Postcolonial Hawthorne, Seinan Gakuin University, Spring 2007
Created: 4/9/07 4:30 pm
Last modified: 7/17/07 7:01 am
Webmaster: Bruce Simon, Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in American Studies, Kyushu University, Seinan Gakuin University, and Fukuoka University; Associate Professor of English, SUNY Fredonia