Spring 2025 First-Year Writing (Barnard) BC1129 section 001

SPECULATING THE PAST

Call Number 00208
Day & Time
Location
MW 4:10pm-5:25pm
To be announced
Points 3
Grading Mode Pass/Fail
Approvals Required None
Instructor Sarah Schwartz
Type LECTURE
Course Description

Recent works as diverse as The New York Times’s Overlooked Project and Netflix’s Bridgerton raise questions about what records we keep, how we narrate history, and the factors that determine what stories we can tell. In this class, we will probe these questions by reading literary works that turn to a speculative mode to make sense of history, past and present. As we enter the critical conversation about the historical record, we will explore how authority and value are assigned to different texts and accounts. In so doing, we will also develop our ability to read texts' and documents' own theorizations of truth and fact. Readings may include work by Virginia Woolf, Marlene NourbeSe Philip, Carmen Maria Machado, Adrienne Rich, and N.K. Jemisin alongside critical texts by Saidiya Hartman, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and others. Course costs will not exceed $15.

Web Site Vergil
Department First-Year Writing @Barnard
Enrollment 15 students (15 max) as of 11:06AM Thursday, December 5, 2024
Status Full
Subject First-Year Writing (Barnard)
Number BC1129
Section 001
Division Barnard College
Section key 20251FYWB1129X001