Print and Performance in the Atlantic World

Early American literature, critics have recently argued, is neither American nor early; rather, it is a literature written by colonial subjects who understood themselves primarily in relation to European metropolitan culture. The hypothesis of this course, however, is that the voices of Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans emerge within these texts as well, albeit in ways that require us to read with a new set of methods. We will attend to the textual nature of the materials we consider, as well as their sonic, haptic, and performative dimensions. A key concern throughout the course will be our engagement with the archive of colonialism and capitalist modernity: who creates the archive? What is omitted or included in the archive? How do we access the archives of colonialism and what do we do with the materials we encounter (and fail to encounter) there? Does the digital nature of the archive change our encounter or not? We will also consider the role of aesthetics in Atlantic world culture, particularly with respect to the publics convened by texts and performances.