AMST 266
Topics in American Literature: Freedom and Captivity Spring 2016
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed ENGL 265
This is not the current course catalog

Letters from prison are as central to American literature as are dreams of freedom. This course explores the persistent concern in American literature and culture with forms of freedom and captivity in works ranging from William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation (1651) to Guantanamo Diary (2015) by Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Literature will include essays and sermons, novels, slave narratives, captivity narratives, and letters from prison (Concord, Birmingham, Folsom State). The course will be weighted toward the 19th century, but will make constant reference to 20th- and 21st-century work as we explore the American carceral imagination in the shift from a slavery democracy to a penal democracy. We will view contemporary films that represent slavery and emancipation, (Django Unchained and Twelve Years a Slave), as well as visual art and photography.