Jo Ann Rangel wrote:
>Hi,
>
>As a professor in training...any suggestions for what type of literature
>courses Butler's works would be a good choice to explore? What came to mind
>immediately was perhaps a literature course dealing with gender issues,
>noting the way in Parable how the people in Lauren's immediate circle seem to
>hold to 1950ish values about society in such a time that displays the society
>to be so dystopian through deterioration that society.
>
>Any thoughts would be welcome
>
>Jo Ann Rangel
aloha, jo ann. i have taught _Kindred_ a couple of times and had super
super classes and papers on it. the story revolves around a young black
woman in the 1970's who is pulled back into the time of slavery. there,
she becomes a strange caregiver to her master's son... who, by the way of
rape, is her great grandfather. the book opens the eyes to gender issues
as well as the horrors of american history that so many young college
students quickly dismiss as a thing of the past. butler, showing that this
woman is intricately woven CONSTANTLY to her family's past, illustrates how
we can't simply shirk history on the basis that "we weren't there" or "we
didn't do it..."
in the beginniig of the text, there's a very good critical essay by Robert
Crossley... i think it's simply called "Introduction"...
i've used this essay as a way to show students how one uses quoted
material, how one can use a good annotated bibliography... plus, when i
help the students begin to juggle 3 voices (their own, the text's, and a
secondary source), i have the students use the Crossley essay and _Kindred_
as a nice introductory exercise.
certainly NOT utopic... but Butler did call her book a "grim fantasy" --
rather than sci-fi... and Crossley wrote -- it's certainly NOT escapist.
i'd love to know what you think if you read it and/or use it.
-lissa bloomer
if you're wearing pants, thank my great great great grandmother.
elisabeth bloomer
instructor, english
virginia tech
ebloomer@vt.edu
540.231.2445
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