English 90kn. Kinship Formations

Instructor: Kelly Mee Rich
Thursday, 9:00-11:45am | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 15 students.

In Ulysses, James Joyce offers the following provocation: “Paternity may be a legal fiction. Who is the father of any son that any son should love him or he any son?” This course explores the complexities of kinship alluded to in this sentence, studying how literature produces narratives of family formation, individual development, legitimacy and illegitimacy, privacy and the public. These issues will be addressed through the topics of gender and sexuality, race and empire, affect, trauma, secrecy, and historical recovery. As we traverse a wide range of cultural texts, we will supplement our readings with primary sources, as well as with theoretical and critical approaches to the concept of kinship. Authors to be considered will likely include Sophocles, Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Octavia Butler, Hazel Carby, and Celeste Ng. This is a seminar-style class open to all. No previous experience in English Department courses is required.