Trinity College
FYSM 140-01 • Counter-Clock Stories: Colonialism Then and Now
Tues. and Thurs./ 11:20-12:35 McCook 205
Gustavo Remedi
30 Seabury hall
(860) 297-2148
We have all been raised reading about and seeing images of Columbus arriving on the shores of America and “taking possession of it all.” We have heard again and again the story of Cortes fighting the infidels in Mexico, of de Soto in Florida and of Pizarro in Perú. These stories are also stories of bringing civilization and meaning to the life of the native “savages,” as well as salvation to their souls. By now we can also recite by heart the stories of John Smith and Pocahontas in the “virgin” lands of Virginia, of the Dutch “purchase” of New York, of the arrival of the Mayflower and the legend of Thanksgiving. Closer to home, we also have the stories of Dutch trader Adriaen Block sailing the Fresh River and landing at Hartford; of Thomas Hooker and his Puritan followers from Massachusetts settling in, and also taking possession of, Southern New England; of John Mason's encounter with the Pequots and the Narragansetts, who eventually "vanished and disappeared.” From there follows the story of the emancipation brought about by the Revolution of 1776; of the gradual incorporation of the South; of the emancipation of Texas; of many more "purchases" [of Louisiana, of California]; of John Wayne resisting at the Alamo; and the many stories of photogenic soldiers, explorers and settlers of the frontier (Daniel Boone, David Crockett, Custer, Buffalo Bill)—all of whom helped shape the United States of today. Assuming that History and Myth are the constructs of power and that every story hides many other opposing truths, we will embark in this Seminar on a journey into the past in search of the Other Story of the "New" Continent.
It is my hope that the readings and discussions of this seminar all will get us to think and to address the main issues and questions about colonialism in the past and in our present day. Some of these issues are: the history of the conquest and colonization of the Americas; the primary expropriation and primitive accumulation that gave birth to capitalism; the way these beginnings and stories are conceived and told; the way in which a particular concept of the national past and of universal history is constructed and adopted as the official discourse and thus becomes a part of our mainstream collective consciousness; the search for, and the discovery of, other stories and perspectives which can lead us to the re-examination and re-evaluation of the Past; the questioning of some commonly accepted ideas, popular myths, “master narratives” and “facts.”
However, dealing with the Past is in many ways nothing more than a way of dealing with the Present. Hence, we are going to concern ourselves with the multiple connections between the Past and the Present as well as the local and the global. Firstly, because many things happening here and now can only be explained if we know and understand the history of the World as a System. Secondly, because many things of the Present originate in, and are a continuation of, the Past. Lastly, we cannot escape the fact that we always think, interrogate and write about the Past from our Present—that is, from a particular cultural framework, our place in society, our special interests, experiences, fears, ideals and dreams.
So, is this a seminar about American Colonial History? Well, not exactly. It is a seminar about “History”—the actual thing as well as the stories constructed about it. It is about the way the past persists and repeats itself in new and constantly changing forms. It is about shaking up the distinction between “past” and “present,” but also “here” and “there,” “local” and “world”. It is, in sum, about the need to view history as a puzzle, as a never-ending quest for knowledge, as a series of conflicting perspectives, experiences and accounts, and finally as a practice and product of our Present.
Readings:
Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States
Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America
Dee Brown, I Buried My Heart at Wounded Knee
Rodolfo Acuña, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
José Luis González, Puerto Rico: The Four Storeyed Country
Ariel Dorfman's “The Other September 11th”
3 H. Zinn, Ch. 1- “Columbus, the Indians and Human Progress” (1-23);
S. Greenblatt, Ch. 3 - “Marvelous Possessions” (52-85)
5 J. Ronda, Ch. 1 - “Black Robes and Boston Men” (in P. Weeks 3-34)
H. Zinn, Ch 3- “Persons of Mean and Vile Condition” (39-58)
10 E. Galeano, “Children in the Eye of the Hurricane” (11-18) and
Ch.1- “Lust for Gold, Lust for Silver” (21-70)
12 H. Zinn, Ch. 2 - “Drawing the Color Line” (23-37) and
W. Rodney, “Ch. 3- “Africa's Contribution...” (75-90)
17 E. Galeano, Ch. 2 (a)- “King Sugar and Other Monarchs” (71-99);
19 E. Galeano, Ch. 2 (b)-“King Sugar and Other Monarchs” (100-148)
24 H. Zinn, Ch 5-“A Kind of Revolution” (76-100);
D. Lyons, “The Balance of Injustice and the War of Independence” (17-24)
26 Discussion of FILM G. Pontecorvo “Burn!”
1 H. Zinn, Ch. 7- “As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs” (124-146);
M. Gibson,Ch. 12-13- “Indians Under Anglo-American Dominion 1800-1840” (279-331);
Th. Perdue, ”The Trail of Tears: Removal of Southern Indians” (in Ph. Weeks 96-115)
3 H. Zinn, Ch. 8-“We Take Nothing By Conquest, Thank God” (147-166);
R. Acuña, “Preface”( ix-xii) and Ch. 1 -“The Conquest of Mexico's Northwest” (1-21)
8 TRINITY DAYS - FIELD TRIP
10 R. Acuña, Ch. 2 - “Remember The Alamo: The Colonization of Texas” (25-50); Ch. 3 - “The Colonization of New Mexico” (54-78)
15 R. Acuña, Ch. 4 -“The Occupation of Arizona” (82-102);
Ch. 5 -“California Lost” (107-129)
17 E. Galeano, Ch. 3 - “The Invisible Sources of Power: Copper, Tin, Oil”
(149-187)
22 W. Rodney Ch. 1 - “Some Questions on Development” (3-28);
and Ch. 4 - “The Roots of African Underdevelopment” (93-145)
24 GUEST SCHOLAR: G. Verdesio author of Forgotten Conquests (2001) and Editor of Colonialism Past and Present (2002)
29 D. Brown, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”: An Indian History of the American West” (Chapters 1-5)
31 D. Brown, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” (Chapters 6-9)
November 2002
5 LIBRARY RESEARCH EXERCISE/PROJECT (TC ONLINE/EXPANDED ACAD)
D. Brown, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” (Chapters 10-13)
7 D. Brown, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” (Chapters 14-19)
12 E. Galeano, Part 2, Ch. 4 - “Development Is a Voyage With More
Shipwrecks than Navigators” (191-224)
14 H. Zinn, Ch. 11- “Robber Barons and Rebels” (247-290)
Discussion of FILMS “Grapes of Wrath” and “Chinatown”
19 H. Zinn, Ch 12 - “The Empire and the People” (290-313)
and Ch. 14 “War is the Health of the States” (350-368)
21 Discussion of FILM D. Halleck ”The Gringo in Mañanaland”
J. L. González “Puerto Rico: The Four Storeyed Country” (1-30)
26 E. Galeano, Part 2, Ch.5- “The Contemporary Structure of Plunder” (225-
285)
28 THANKSGIVING
3 E. Galeano, “Seven Years After” (287-308)
Discussion of FILM B. Trent “The Panama Deception” (1992)
5 C. Calloway “Surviving the Dark Ages” (1-28)
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