Steve Mentz

THE BOOKFISH

THALASSOLOGY, SHAKESPEARE, AND SWIMMING

  • Home
  • Steve Mentz
  • Humanities Commons
  • Public Writing
  • The sea! the sea!
  • The Bookfish
  • St. Johns

Notes toward a Migrancy Syllabus

September 8, 2015 by Steve Mentz Leave a Comment

DriftJonathan Hsy’s rich post on Medievalists and the Global Refugee Crisis has me thinking. The poetics of exile and migrancy overflow premodern literary culture. What are Odysseus and Aeneas but violently displaced migrants who eventually make it to old or new homes?

[updated with thanks to Karl Steel and Justin Kolb]

No time before class this morning to elaborate on the refugee experience in premodern literature — except perhaps to gesture toward a future syllabus, not for this semester, but perhaps for spring 2016:

  1. “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer”
  2. Caroline Bergvall’s Drift (which combines bits of the Seafarer with the story of the Left-to-Die boat full of Algerian refugees in 2011)

  3. The Man of Law’s Tale (with Jonathan’s book and the 2003 BBC adaptation!)

  4. Pericles (conveniently playing at Theater for a New Audience in  winter 2016)

  5. As You Like It

 

6. Paradise Lost

7.  Poetry of exile: Mary Sidney’s Psalms, Amelia Lanyer, Marvell, Donne

8. [if early modern] A Christian Turned Turk, The Renegado, Coryate’s walk to India

9. [if Shakespeare} Othello and Leo Africanus; Eliz I’s letter expelling the “moors”

10. [if larger timespan] Candide / Oroonooko / Robinson Crusoe / Equiano

Depending on whether it’s a Shakespeare class or a more general / multiperiod class there could be much more — the opening books of the Aeneid or wandering sections of the Odyssey, Timon of Athens, Nashe’s Unfortunate Traveler, etc. I’d introduce the class with some hard-to-watch materials from this past week’s news. Possible also Derrida’s Of Hospitality or this great post from Teju Cole that uses The Gift of Death to think about our duty to displaced people.

Now, back to my already planned course on Shakespeare and Empire! Today’s the epic/counter-epic teaser, via Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage and David Hadbawnik’s translation of the Aeneid.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About Steve

Steve Mentz
Professor of English
St. John’s University
Read Bio

Twitter Feed

Steve MentzFollow

Shakespearean. Ecocritic. Swimmer. New book Ocean #objectsobjects Professor at St. John's in NYC. #bluehumanities #pluralizetheanthropocene

Steve Mentz
stevermentzSteve Mentz@stevermentz·
4 May

Today's the day! I'm doing something a bit different in this lecture, shaping my thoughts around the work and intellectual legacy of John Gillis. It'll be recorded, for people who can't be in the room or on the Zoom today in Bern!

Reply on Twitter 1521728614169038849Retweet on Twitter 15217286141690388497Like on Twitter 152172861416903884935Twitter 1521728614169038849
stevermentzSteve Mentz@stevermentz·
2 May

Very excited to be in Bern, and I’m looking forward to the lecture and workshop!

Reply on Twitter 1521067987679289345Retweet on Twitter 15210679876792893455Like on Twitter 152106798767928934515Twitter 1521067987679289345
Load More...

Pages

  • #shax2022 s31: Rethinking the Early Modern Literary Caribbbean
  • OCEAN Publicity
  • #SAA 2020: Watery Thinking
  • Creating Nature: May 2019 at the Folger
  • Audio and Video Recordings
  • Oceanic New York
  • Public Writing
  • Published Work
  • #pluralizetheanthropocene

Recent Posts

  • License to Kill: Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga in Macbeth on Broadway
  • Remember Me? Specters of #shax2022
  • Fictions, Genres, and Planetary Waters in Auburn
  • Oceanic Turns: Five Linked Sessions at AAG 2022 (Zoom-NYC; 25 Feb)
  • Merchant of Venice at Tfana (Feb 2022)

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in