Folks:  here is a brand new CFP from C19, titled "Teaching Racist Texts"...
and guess what is this critic's star attraction?

I'm troubled by the concept of a "racist text" being displayed so
cavalierly (especially now 40 years give or take after Derrida, Bakhtin et
al)  and wondered if others on here would be too.  there are certainly
racist tendencies in the text, but it's not exactly The Leopard's Spots or
anything, right??

Further, it would seem that the author of a "racist text" is also a
racist.

Much of this has been debated in Twain studies ad  nauseum, I know;  I'm
just thinking of how to (politely?) respond, and show my displeasure at
what I consider an unjust characterization of HF as a "racist text."

comments?  -hb




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brigitte Fielder <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 11:08 AM
Subject: MLA 2014 cfp: Roundtable on Teaching Racist Texts
To: [log in to unmask]


Teaching Racist Texts: A Roundtable on Pedagogy

 While continuing efforts have been made to incorporate a more diverse
array of writers into the American literary canon, the problem of racism
still presents a pedagogical challenge.  As literature courses seek to
engage students in meaningful conversations about the assigned texts, they
must also deal with the problem of those texts’ content. Some literature
contains material which is offensive – racial epithets, derogatory
depictions of non-white people, assumptions of white supremacy.  The 2011
New South Books publication of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
sparked popular controversy by replacing the text’s 219 uses of the
“n-word” with the word “slave.”  While this change makes the text more
palatable for some to read aloud, it does not evacuate all that is
problematic about the texts’ presentation of race and racism. Rather than
evacuating, dismissing, or ignoring racist content, engaging students in
frank conversations about the racism inherent in much of American
literature will help them to address the difficult – sometimes offensive or
hurtful – content of the literatures we read, discuss, and write about.

The pedagogy of dealing with the racist content of American literature will
be the subject of this roundtable.  Participants will share their insights
into common problems encountered when teaching racist texts, and strategies
for teaching students how to talk and write about this racism.

Moreover, the pedagogical practice of attending to racism can help students
to better understand the literature at the center of our classroom
discussions.

Roundtable discussion topics may include:

Student reluctance to talking about race
Preconceptions about race and racism
Historical contexts / racism in the present
Dealing with dialect
Redeeming texts / absolving authors
Racist language – to repeat or not to repeat?
Being mindful of students’ racialized persons
The embodied professor – who gets to talk about race?
How to write about racism without sounding like a racist

100-word abstracts by 15 March to Brigitte Fielder (
[log in to unmask]).

-- 
Brigitte Nicole Fielder, PhD
Associate Lecturer in English
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Helen C. White Hall
600 North Park Street
Madison, WI 53706




-- 
Prof. Harold K. Bush
Professor of English
3800 Lindell
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO  63108
314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
<www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>