A Story to Pass On: The Twentieth Century, History and Haunting in American Cultures

This course was designed to fulfill the American Cultures Requirement in U.C. Berkeley. It focuses on the representation of the past, and of history, as a "haunting." The title comes from one of the important lines in Toni Morrison's Beloved: How do we decide what parts of the past have to live on? Can we choose?

The class was conducted as part lecture and part discussion, while students worked on Creative Group Projects and Presentations through the semester. Look at the "Study Questions" section of this Website to find Study Aids for some of these texts.

Course Description
Texts and Requirements
Semester Schedule
Study Questions

Course Description

A Story to Pass On: The Twentieth Century, History and Haunting in American Cultures

In this course we will focus on how different authors approach the responsibility and weight of the historical past, and how they work to question, accept or transform it through fiction. The texts we will read present different possibilities for the formation of cultural identities based on specific relations with history. How is cultural heritage constructed or transmitted? What does it mean to suppress/ repress this heritage? We will explore the relation of the individual or the cultural group to written and oral presentations and recordings of the past as one of the preoccupations of the whole twentieth century. As the need for the creation of a common culture arises in the course of the century, the inclusion of the previously excluded and the haunting of the present by the past mark a change in the relation of the individual to history. Which stories are "stories to pass on?"

A Story to Pass On: The Twentieth Century, History and Haunting in American Cultures

Texts

Mary Crow Dog, Lakota Woman
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine
Allen Ginsberg, "Howl"
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
Nela Larsen, Quicksand
Toni Morrison, Beloved
John Okada, No-No Boy
Eugene O'Neill, The Long Day's Journey into Night
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Leslie Marmon Silko, Storyteller
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass selections

Course Requirements

class attendance and participation
three short response papers (2-3 pages) on class readings
one midterm paper (5-7 pages)
one creative project or group presentation
a final research paper on a comparative topic (6-8 pages)
a final exam

A Story to Pass On: The Twentieth Century, History and Haunting in American Cultures

Semester Schedule

Part 1: Haunting and History

Week 1
Introduction
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Reader: H.L. Gates

Week 2
Toni Morrison, Beloved (end)
Reader: Homi Bhabha

Part 2: Childhood and Haunted Family Stories

Week 3
Leslie Marmon Silko, Storyteller

Week 4
Leslie Marmon Silko, Storyteller (end)
Reader: N.Scott Momaday
John Okada, No-No Boy

Week 5
John Okada, No-No Boy (end)
Reader: Sau-Ling Cynthia Wong
Eugene O'Neil, The Long Day's Journey into Night

Week 6
DUE: A 5-7 page essay which will analyze issues raised in the class so far.
Eugene O'Neil, The Long Day's Journey into Night (end)
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

Part 3: Autobiography, Lyric, and Portrayals of the Haunted Self

Week 7
Trin T.Minha Surname Viet, Given Name Nam
Reader: Trin T. Minha
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Week 8
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Week 9
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (end)

Week 10
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Reader: Allen Ginsberg, "Howl"

Week 11
Mary Crow Dog, Lakota Woman

Part 4:Relating to the Past: Fiction and the Haunting of History

Week 12
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

Week 13
Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine

Week 14
Nela Larsen, Quicksand

Week 15
Wrapping Up
Creative Projects and Presentations

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