Course Description: This course invites students to critically engage with the feminist maxim “the personal is political” as they examine a selection of twentieth-century novels, novellas, and short stories by Haitian women writers Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Yanick Lahens, Évelyne Trouillot, Edwidge Danticat, and Roxane Gay. Through close readings, discussions, written and oral assignments, students will examine the different narrative strategies these writers bring into play to reimagine major historical events (the Haitian Revolution, the United States occupation of Haiti, the 1937 Massacre, and the Duvalier regime) into intimate narratives that foreground questions of gender, memory, and national belonging.
Evaluation:
Active class participation: 20%
Short reflections & quizzes: 30%
Two short essays: 20%
Group oral presentation: 10 %
Final Paper: 20 %