[Next week, a
new semester begins; so this week, I’ve previewed five classes and other
aspects of that semester, this time through the lens of teaching and working in
the age of Trump. Leading up to this special weekend post on book talks and
projects!]
Three projects
on which I’ll be working as the spring and 2017 unfold:
1)
Finding Book Talks: So far, I’ve had the chance
to give two book talks for History
and Hope in American Literature: Models of Critical Patriotism, and
they were just as inspiring and generative as were all the
book talks I gave for my prior project, The
Chinese Exclusion Act. Because of that prior project’s more specific
historical and cultural focus, it was somewhat easier to identify possible
sites and spaces for book talks—but if anything, I believe that the broader
themes to which this new book connects (not only of history, hope, and critical
patriotism, but also of exclusion and inclusion) are even more salient and
worth adding to our collective conversations. I’ve got one spring talk in the
works at a public library and one at a historical society, and I’m open to lots
more of those kinds of spaces, as well as any and all others (bookstores,
reading groups, classes and educational institutions, historic sites, you name
it!). So if you have any ideas, or want to pass this on to anyone who might be
interested, I’ll be very grateful!
2)
A Possible New Pivot Project: The Chinese Exclusion Act was published
as part of Palgrave
Macmillan’s Pivot series, which features shorter books aimed at digital
distribution and reading (and with a very quick turnaround from inception to
publication). I loved the experience, and am excited at the possibility of
publishing a book in another Pivot series—Pivotal Studies in the Global
American Literary Imagination, edited by Dan O’Hara and Donald Pease. My
proposed book would offer a slightly different spin on “global,” considering
three case studies in American figures and texts that present transcultural
alternatives to white supremacist images of American history, identity, and
community: William
Apess’ “Eulogy on King Philip”; Maria
Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s The Squatter and
the Don; and Sui
Sin Far’s “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian” and Yung
Wing’s My Life in China and America
(both 1909). This project has come about very suddenly and remains just a
possibility, but I hope to have the chance to write about these vital figures
and texts and in so doing be part of a wonderful series.
3)
The Germ of an Idea: I’m still determined to
write at some point Black History is American
History, the project focused on Ida B. Wells, Charles Chesnutt, W.E.B.
Du Bois, and Carter G. Woodson about which I’ve
been thinking for a couple years. But in the aftermath of the election and
much else from the last year, I’ve been thinking more and more about a project
on the originating and ongoing duality of exclusionary and inclusive visions of
America. To name one originating example, Christopher
Columbus and Bartolomé de las Casas were on the same voyages, yet articulated
and acted upon diametrically opposed visions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas
in relation to the post-contact world. Or there’s this
example, of the Japanese internment camps and the amazing American story
and community that emerged from them. Or Quock
Walker using the Declaration of Independence to argue successfully for his
freedom from slavery, at the same moment that slavery was being written into
the Constitution. In many ways, America has always been and remains a battle
between these exclusionary and inclusive visions, and I’m starting to formulate
a project that would explore this enduring and defining duality. I’d love your
thoughts, on that idea as on any of this!
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Projects or plans you’d highlight or share?
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