Course Objectives:

By the end of this course you should
-demonstrate a knowledge of several West Indian novels, and of their historical, social, and cultural backgrounds;
-recognize the impact of cultural, economic, political, and social environments upon language, and especially upon the development of the West Indian novel.
-show knowledge of works by female authors and authors of color;
-demonstrate how reading writing speaking, listening, viewing, and thinking are interrelated;
-show knowledge of works of literary theory and criticism ;
-use a wide range of writing strategies to generate meaning and to clarify understanding.
(Course objectives adapted from NCTE guidelines)

Required Texts:

The Novels:
George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin, University of Michigan Press, (December 1991).(341 pages)
V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas, Vintage Books, (January 8, 2002). (564 pages)
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Norton Critical Edition, (December, 1998). (text of novel, 103 pages)
Paule Marshall, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People, Vintage Books, (September, 1984) (472 pages)
Earl Lovelace, The Wine of Astonishment, Heinemann, (December, 1986). (160 pages)
Zee Edgell, Beka Lamb, Heinemann, (June 1987). (172 pages)

Required Secondary Text:
Booker and Juraga, The Caribbean Novel in English, Heinemann, 2001.

Required Subject to Availability
Kenneth Ramchand, The West Indian Novel and its Background, Ian Randle Publishers, 2004.
I will assign a variety of other critical essays on the novels we will read.

Course Outline:

1 August 28th: Introductions, backgrounds, preview of the texts
2* September 4th: In the Castle of My Skin
3 September 11th: In the Castle of My Skin
4* September 25th: A House For Mr. Biswas
5 October 2nd: A House For Mr. Biswas
6 October 9th: A House For Mr. Biswas
7*October 16th: Wide Sargasso Sear
8* October 23rd: Wide Sargasso Sea & Beka Lamb
9 October 30th: The Chosen Place
10* November 6th: The Chosen Place
11 November 13th: The Wine of Astonishment
12 November 27th: The Wine of Astonishment
13* December 4th: Beka Lamb
14** December 11th: Beka Lamb
15*** December 14th: Final Exam Due

Note: key, participation, assignments and grading adapted from Professor Ellen Tremper's sample syllabus

Key
*--response paper due
**--term paper due
***--take-home final due

Participation:
Students must attend regularly, arrive on time and must be prepared to participate, having done the assigned work. Participation will count for 10% of the overall grade for the course.

Assignments:
Papers:
Students will write "response" papers of one to two pages each time we begin a new book.
Students will write one term paper of 7-10 pages, with four books and/or journal articles in the bibliography
Presentations:
Students will make one presentation, based on a response paper, of 5-10 minutes
Class members will respond to student presenter; this response will constitute the beginning of our discussion of the book.

Exams:
Final exam: This will be a take-home final. You will write two essays (you will have a choice of two topics for each of the essays you will write) of 2-3 typed pages each; you will have to write about every book we have read (approximately half the books will be covered in one essay, the other half in the second)

Grading:
Grades will be based on the following percentages:
class participation-10%
7 response papers-30%
term paper-30%
final examination-30%

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation criteria for class participation:
Your class participation will be judged on the basis of your questions to presenters, your respect for other class members' and my points of view (as shown in the way you respond to others' ideas), and your attentiveness to the discussion (people who don't like to speak frequently will not be penalized, but you should make an effort to participate). I also expect that your participation will reflect your having done the reading for each class.

Evaluation criteria for written work and presentations:
From a list by Lewis Hyde, edited by Sue Lonoff, with thanks to Richard Marius's writing handbook.

The Unsatisfactory Paper.
The D or F paper either has no thesis or else it has one that is strikingly vague, broad, or uninteresting. There is little indication that the writer understands the material being presented. The paragraphs do not hold together; ideas do not develop from sentence to sentence. This paper usually repeats the same thoughts again and again, perhaps in slightly different language but often in the same words. The D or F paper is filled with mechanical faults, errors in grammar, and errors in spelling.

The C Paper.
The C paper has a thesis, but it is vague and broad, or else it is uninteresting or obvious. It does not advance an argument that anyone might care to debate. "Henry James wrote some interesting novels." "Modern cities are interesting places."
The thesis in the C paper often hangs on some personal opinion. If the writer is a recognized authority, such an expression of personal taste may be noteworthy, but writers gain authority not merely by expressing their tastes but by justifying them. Personal opinion is often the engine that drives an argument, but opinion by itself is never sufficient. It must be defended.
The C paper rarely uses evidence well; sometimes it does not use evidence at all. Even if it has a clear and interesting thesis, a paper with insufficient supporting evidence is a C paper.
The C paper often has mechanical faults, errors in grammar and spelling, but please note: a paper without such flaws may still be a C paper.

The B Paper.
The reader of a B paper knows exactly what the author wants to say. It is well organized, it presents a worthwhile and interesting idea, and the idea is supported by sound evidence presented in a neat and orderly way. Some of the sentences may not be elegant, but they are clear, and in them thought follows naturally on thought. The paragraphs may be unwieldy now and then, but they are organized around one main idea. The reader does not have to read a paragraph two or three times to get the thought that the writer is trying to convey.
The B paper is always mechanically correct. The spelling is good, and the punctuation is accurate. Above all, the paper makes sense throughout. It has a thesis that is limited and worth arguing. It does not contain unexpected digressions, and it ends by keeping the promise to argue and inform that the writer makes in the beginning.

The A Paper.
The A paper has all the good qualities of the B paper, but in addition it is lively, well paced, interesting, even exciting. The paper has style. Everything in it seems to fit the thesis exactly. It may have a proofreading error or two, or even a misspelled word, but the reader feels that these errors are the consequence of the normal accidents all good writers encounter. Reading the paper, we can feel a mind at work. We are convinced that the writer cares for his or her ideas, and about the language that carries them.
Copyright © 2002, 2003 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Permission is granted to non-profit educational institutions to reproduce this document for internal use provided that the Bok Center's authorship and copyright are acknowledged.

Selected Bibliography

Michael Anthony, In the Heat of the Day, Heinemann, 1996.
Booker and Juraga, The Caribbean Novel in English, Heinemann, 2001.
Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism. Trans. Joan Pinkham, Monthly Review Press, 1972.
Austin Clarke, The Question, McClelland & Stewart, 1999.
Michelle Cliff, Abeng, Plume, 1995.
Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven, Plume, 1996.
Zee Edgell, Beka Lamb, Heinemann, 1987.
Frantz Fanon. The Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press, 1968.
E. M. Forster. Aspects of the Novel, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1954.
Michael Gilkes, The West Indian Novel, Twayne, 1981.
Glyne A. Griffith, Deconstruction, Imperialism, and the West Indian Novel, The Press UWI, 1996.
Wilson Harris, The Eye of the Scarecrow, Faber and Faber, 1965.
Merle Hodge, Crick Crack, Monkey, Heinemann, 2000.
C.L.R. James, Beyond A Boundary, Duke University Press, 1993.
Jamaica Kincaid, The Autobiography of My Mother, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1996.
Bruce King, ed., West Indian Literature, Macmillan Education Limited, 1995.
George Lamming, The Emigrants, University of Michigan Press, 1994.
George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin, University of Michigan Press, 1991.
Claude McKay, Banana Bottom, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1961.
Earl Lovelace, Salt, Persea Books, 1998.
Edgar Mittelholzer, Corentyne Thunder, Heinemann, 1977.
V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas, Vintage Books, 2001.
V. S. Naipaul, The Mystic Masseur, Vintage Books, 2002.
V. S. Naipaul, Half A Life, Knopf, 2001.
Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River, Vintage Books, 1995.
Kenneth Ramchand, Best West Indian Stories, Nelson Caribbean, 1982.
Kenneth Ramchand, The West Indian Novel and its Background, Heinemann, 1983.
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Norton, 1966.
Samuel Selvon, A Brighter Sun, Longman Drumbeat, 1952.
Eric Williams, Capitalism & Slavery, The University of North Carolina Press, 1994.