WEEKLY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE:
1) A primary text is assigned for each week. These will include works by
Anna Julia Cooper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mark Twain, Ida B. Wells, Paul
Laurence Dunbar, Theodore Dreiser, Charles W. Chesnutt, W.E.B. DuBois, and
James Weldon Johnson.
2) After you read the main text assigned for each class meeting, find
some primary source (or sources) that illuminates, in some interesting way,
issues of race and gender raised in the main text and explain your insight
in class. (Issues of class and ethnicity as they intersect with gender and
race should be addressed as well.) Turn in a paragraph that briefly states
the kinds of "connections" you endeavored to make and what you came up
with; give full citations (including library location) for each of the
primary sources you discuss. (These notes will not be graded, but a record
of their having been turned in will be kept.) One possible approach
involves using materials by the writer in question other than those read
for class. Another approach involves finding materials from the period that
shed interesting light on the class text and the issues it raises. Either
approach is fine. Be creative!
OTHER REQUIREMENTS:
l) Each student is required to be the "facilitator" of the class during one
class meeting. The facilitator(s) for each week's meeting should do extra
research on l)the popular and critical reception of the primary text at
the time of its publication and subsequently, and 2) historical events and
issues that impinge on or illuminate the text and its reception.
Facilitators should
NOTE ON RESOURCES:
The resources of the HRC will be used in class, and students are encouraged
to explore HRC holdings in some depth. In addition to the literary
manuscripts and archives and the book and periodical holdings on the fifth
floor students should be aware of two other HRC collections housed on other
floors and should feel free to explore them: l) the Photography Collection,
and 2) the Theatre Arts Collection.
The University of Texas's holdings in late nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century newspapers and periodicals are spread over the HRC, the
PCL and the Barker Texas History Center. Only a small fraction of these
holdings are reflected in the attached bibliographies. A veritable treasure
trove of additional sources are housed in each of these libraries. PCL and
Barker periodical holdings are generally listed in UTCAT online
terminals; HRC periodical holdings are not. HRC periodicals are listed in
the bound volumes of computer printouts kept on the table in the back of
the HRC reading room. Copies of HRC periodical printouts are available in
the reference room of PCL as well. (Caution: many newspaper and periodical
runs held by UT are incomplete.If you are looking for a specific article,
don't rely on the computer alone to let you know if you will be able to
locate it in time to use it.) If periodicals will be central to your large
research project, try to locate them early on in the semester. A number of
newspapers periodicals that UT libraries do NOT have are available for
longterm loan from the Center for Research Libraries. These loans, which
take 2-4 weeks to be processed, are handled through InterLibrary Loan.
Newspapers and periodicals available through CRL -- such as complete runs
of the Baltimore Afro-American -- are listed in UTCAT. Be sure to order
such periodicals early in the semester if you plan to use them. Also, if
you do place an order through CRL, please let the class know in case
another student would like to use the paper or magazine as well. The Barker
Texas History Center has invaluable resources that have bearing on the
issues we will be dealing with in this course--including four African
American newspapers from the turn-of-the-century (the Austin Weekly
Bulletin, the Galveston City Times, the Galveston Tamborian, and the
Pittsburg X-Ray), as well as many of the mainstream newspapers and
periodicals of the time.
NOTE ON HRC REGULATIONS:
Having class meetings in the HRC entails certain privileges and
obligations. The good news is that HRC materials will be readily available
to you throughout the semester, and will be brought to the classroom for
each class. The bad news is that the rules of the HRC reading room apply to
everything that happens on the fifth floor. This means:
l) Absolutely NO food or drink of any kind allowed in the building. We will
have a break in the middle of class when you can go out for coffee, if you
need it--but don't even THINK about bringing it in past the guard.
2) You have to check your belongings at the door. Jackets, backpacks and
purses may be left either on the ground floor or at the entrance to the
fifth floor. Both areas are guarded.
3) Pencils and yellow paper will be provided to you free of charge on the
fifth floor. No pens allowed. No notebooks allowed. You are allowed to
write on your own yellow writing tablets or loose yellow sheets. If you
want to keep your notes for the class in a notebook, get a looseleaf
notebook and take a few pages in with you for each class. These note pages
will be stamped at the front desk on the fifth floor. (The looseleaf
notebook itself is not allowed inside.) If you want to share with the class
a xerox of material to which you refer in your "connections" paragraph,
have that stamped at the desk as well. You will be allowed to bring your
paperback copy of the primary text for each class into the seminar
room--but no other books will be allowed.
CLASS SCHEDULE:
August 3lst