HUM 106 The Literary South

Reflecting the interdisciplinary approach of the Search program, Humanities 106 is a travel-study experience that will explore the literature of the South, with a focus on the work of writers from Memphis, Mississippi, and Alabama and narratives set in this region. Over the course of a four-day journey through the landscapes of Southern fiction, we will situate these works in their global and historical context, with reference to the readings in Humanities 101, 102, and 201, and explore how these works of literature describe the experiences of people in this region with an emphasis how writers responded to the dynamics of place, ethnic and racial divides, and the traumas of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and segregation. This course will include visits to places of significance not only because of what transpired there but how they became part of the Southern literary legacy, such as Rowan Oak in Oxford, the Episcopal Rectory and Cutrer Mansion in Clarksdale, Eudora Welty’s house and garden in Jackson, the Monroe County Courthouse in Monroeville, and Tuskegee University. This course will feature readings and discussions both prior to and during the trip.