March 13: Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, (read to end )
Mary Prince's history of herself represents the earliest known slave narrative by a woman, and she offers a powerful indictment of the horrors of slavery.  Given that Brontë, herself had described the oppression of women (meaning white, mostly middle-class women) in Britain as "slavish," compare/contrast Prince's description of her oppression with that Brontë, describes in Jane Eyre.  How does Prince's suffering differ, either in degree or kind, to that described by Brontë?  Is there anything that slave women and white women share in common?  Does patriarchy in general limit the lives of all women in British society, or do the lives of slave women and white woman differ so greatly as to be incomparable?  Compare/contrast Prince's History with Jane Eyre, focusing on their description of the status of slave women versus non-slave women.

March 27: Mike Rose, "The Politics of Remediation"

Rose's piece details his experience teaching writing to young people who were labeled "illiterate" or lacking in basic writing schools. Rose suggests the difficulties lie not with the students but with the writing curriculum. What kinds of problems does Rose see in the standard curriculum? What assumptions of the curriculum defined his students as inadequate? What role did "grammatical analysis" play in judging the writing performance of the students? How does Rose find real ability and quality in the writing of his students? What makes "good" writing for Rose? Do you agree with Rose's assessment of the curriculum? Discuss Rose's critique of the standard writing curriculum, its assumptions as to want constitutes acceptable writing skills, and the alternative assessment standards that he offers.

April 3: Peter Elbow, "Being a Writer Vs. Being an Academic"

Elbow writes about the basic contradictions in his class between being a "writer" and being an "academic writer." This causes problems in the ways he teaches writing to his students. The demands of academic writing (such as for a literature class) are often at odds with the needs and outlook of writers in general. How are some of the ways in which writing in an academic setting (a lit. class) may be different than in a general "writing" class? Why does Elbow say academic/lit. classes focus more on the reader than the writer? Why do academic writers have to think more about their reader as opposed to general writers who has to think about communicating their own ideas? Is your own experience of writing training in a "writing" class (such as ENG 100) different than writing expectations encountered in a English course in a specific subject? How might one bridge the opposition between the two kinds of writing? Describe Elbow's idea that non-academic writing is opposed to academic writing.