with George Hartley

10:10-12:00 T-Th, Ellis 110, call#03038 (Eng)/04030 (INST)

Office: Ellis 311; 593-2812; hartleyg@ohio.edu; http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~hartleyg/537/;

Office Hours: T-Th 1:00-2:00

Description:

This course will focus on indigenous decolonization in the Americas, with a particular focus on the Maya. Among other things, you will come to appreciate the role of indigenous knowledges and the book in the five-hundred-year Maya resistance to colonial hegemony. From the writing of the Popol Vuh to the Zapatista Rebellion, we will look at how the politics of language and literacy (as structures for competing cosmovisions) shape movements for political and cultural autonomy and self-determination.

You will write two papers, give a class presentation, and come to class with 2-page daily reading notes.

Texts:

  • Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition Of The Mayan Book Of The Dawn Of Life (Paperback) by Dennis Tedlock Touchstone List Price: $16.00 Price: $10.88 ISBN-10: 0684818450
  • The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, & Colonization, 2nd Edition (Paperback) by Walter Mignolo University of Michigan Press List Price: $25.95 Price: $23.35 ISBN-10: 0472089315
  • Almanac of the Dead (Paperback) by Leslie Marmon Silko Penguin Books (November 1, 1992) ISBN-10: 0140173196 List Price: $18.00 Price: $12.24
  • The Book of Lamentations (Penguin Classics) (Paperback) by Rosario Castellanos Penguin ISBN-10: 014118003X List Price: $17.00 Price: $12.75
  • The Fire and the Word: A History of the Zapatista Movement (Paperback) by Gloria Muñoz Ramírez City Lights Publishers ISBN-10: 087286488X List Price: $16.95 Price: $11.53 F1256 .M8613 2008
  • Maya Intellectual Renaissance: Identity, Representation, and Leadership by Victor D. Montejo University of Texas Press ISBN-10: 0292709390 List Price: $19.95 Price: $19.95 F1435.3.I57 M65 2005
  • I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala Verso ISBN-10: 0860917886 List Price: $20.00 Price: $18.00 F1465.2.Q5 M3813 1984x
  • The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram. Vintage Books # ISBN-10: 0679776397
  • One 10-page paper (30% of total grade);
  • One 15-20-page paper (40%);
  • One 4-page book review (15%);
  • Daily reading notes (15%).

Expectations: You are graduate students. Enough said.

Plagiarism Policy:

Each student must read the definition of plagiarism provided at http://www.ohio.edu/judiciaries/acadintegrity_students.cfm and sign an acknowledgement-of-understanding form before any written work will be accepted.