COURSE UNIT TITLE

Offered By

Translation Studies

Level of Course Unit

Third Cycle Programmes (Doctorate Degree)

Course Coordinator

PROFESSOR NAFIZE SIBEL GÜZEL

Offered to

Translation Studies

Course Objective

This seminar focuses on African-American history and culture and, more specifically, on African-American literature and the difficulties involved in interpreting and translating it. Seminar participants are introduced to a broad range of African-American literary texts, from narratives by former slaves to the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance and texts by sixties activists such as Amiri Baraka. The main focus is, however, on key prose texts from the mid-twentieth century to the present by writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Toni Morison and, if time permits, Alice Walker. Efforts will be made to show how, in each period of American history from slavery to the present, African-Americans have produced distinctive texts that directly engage with their history and experience in America and meditate upon its meanings.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Recomended or Required Reading

1. Essays on the History, Culture and Sociology of African Americans:
Hornsby, Jr., Alton, ed. A Companion to African American History. Malden, MA/Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.

2. African-American Writings on African-American History, Culture and Identity:
Marable, Manning & Leith Mullings. Let Nobody Turn Us Round: Voices of Resistance, Reform and Renewal: An African American Anthology. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD/Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. (Excerpts from Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, WEB Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Fanny Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, Amiri Baraka, bell hooks, Molefi Asante, Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and others.)

3. Literary Texts:
Baldwin, James. Another Country. NY: Dial, 1962.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. NY: Random House, 1952.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. NY: Lippincott, 1937.
Morison, Toni. Jazz. NY: Knopf, 1992.
Wright, Richard. Black Boy. NY: Harper, 1945.

4. Supplementary Texts:
Eyerman, Ron. Slavery and the Formation of African American Identity. Cambridge/NY: Cambridge UP, 2001.
Genovese, Eugene. Roll, Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made. NY: Pantheon, 1975.
Graham, Maryemma, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel. Cambridge/NY: Cambridge UP, 2003.
Lawson, R.A. The Blues and Black Southerners. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2010.
Waldstreicher, David. The Struggle Against Slavery: A History in Documents. Oxford/NY: Oxford UP, 2001.
Warren, Kenneth A. What Was African American Literature. The WEB Du Bois Lectures. Cambridge/London: Harvard UP, 2011.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Seminar presentations followed by debate and discussion

Assessment Methods

Further Notes About Assessment Methods

Active Participation marks will be based on the quality and quantity of the participant s contributions to seminar discussions and debates. The Final Exam is in fact a research paper. It is to be a maximum of 20 pages, double spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman. The topic of the paper must be approved by the instructor but can concern any of the materials covered during the seminar.

Assessment Criteria

Optional, if the instructor needs to add some explanation or further note,

Language of Instruction

Turkish

Course Policies and Rules

1. All assignments must be submitted on or before the due date.
2. Assignments and research papers are rigorously checked for plagiarism. Any kind of plagiarism will be subject to disciplinary action.
3. Attendance is required.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

gerard.paulsen@worc.oxon.org

Office Hours

To be announced.

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes