Table Of ContentApproaches to Teaching the
Works of Edwidge Danticat
Providing an intellectual interpretation to the work of Edwidge Dan-
ticat, this new edited collection provides a pedagogical approach to
teach and interpret her body of work in undergraduate and graduate
classrooms. Approaches to Teaching the Works of Edwidge Danticat
starts out by exploring diasporic categories and postcolonial themes
such as gender constructs, cultural nationalism, cultural and communal
identity, and moves to investigate Danticat’s human rights activism, the
immigrant experience, the relationship between the particular and the
universal, and the violence of hegemony and imperialism in relationship
with society, family, and community. The editors of the collection have
carefully compiled works that show how Danticat’s writings may help
in building more compassionate and relational human communities that
are grounded on the imperative of human dignity, respect, inclusion,
and peace.
Celucien L. Joseph is an Associate Professor of English at Indian River
State College
Suchismita Banerjee is an English Professor at Indian River State College
Marvin E. Hobson is an Associate Professor of English at Indian River
State College
Danny M. Hoey Jr. is an Associate Professor of English at Indian River
State College
Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature
27 Theorizing Ethnicity and Nationality in the Chick Lit Genre
Edited by Erin Hurt
28 Extreme States
The Evolution of American Transgressive Fiction 1960–2000
Coco D’Hont
29 Transmodern Perspectives on Contemporary Literatures
in English
Edited by Jessica Aliaga-Lavrijsen and José María Yebra-Pertusa
30 Origin and Ellipsis in the Writing of Hilary Mantel
An Elliptical Dialogue with the Thinking of Jacques Derrida
Eileen Pollard
31 Haruki Murakami
Storytelling and Productive Distance
Chikako Nihei
32 David Foster Wallace and the Body
Peter Sloane
33 Urban Captivity Narratives
Women’s Writing After 9/11
Heather Hillsburg
34 The Humanist (Re)Turn
Reclaiming the Self in Literature
Michael Bryson
35 Approaches to Teaching the Works of Edwidge Danticat
Edited by Celucien L. Joseph, Suchismita Banerjee,
Marvin E. Hobson, and Danny M. Hoey Jr.
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com
Approaches to Teaching the
Works of Edwidge Danticat
Edited by
Celucien L. Joseph,
Suchismita Banerjee,
Marvin E. Hobson, and
Danny M. Hoey Jr.
First published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2020 Taylor & Francis
The right of Celucien L. Joseph, Suchismita Banerjee, Marvin
E. Hobson, and Danny M. Hoey Jr. to be identified as the authors
of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-26374-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-29302-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
To our beloved students at Indian River State College:
You are our inspiration!
Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: Edwidge Danticat in a Global Classroom
and Transnational Context: Rethinking Pedagogy,
Transcultural Community, and Engaged Learning 1
CELUCIEN L. JOSEPH, SUCHISMITA BANERJEE, MARVIN
E. HOBSON, AND DANNY M. HOEY JR.
PART I
Critical Literary, Historical Narrative, and
Transformative Pedagogy 11
1 From Duvalierism to Dechoukaj in The Dew Breaker 13
JONATHAN GLOVER
2 “We are the Haitian Think Tank”: Cultivating
Perspectives in Haitian Youth: Using Danticat’s Krik? Krak! 30
WIDELINE SERAPHIN, CHARLENE DESIR, AND PAMELA D. HALL
3 Teaching Genre as Method in The Dew Breaker 56
NATHAN A. JUNG
4 StoryCorps: Incorporating Local Oral History
Collections in the Classroom 72
KENDRA AUBERRY AND ANGIE NEELY-SARDON
viii Contents
PART II
Gender Alliance, Pedagogy, and Engaged Learning 91
5 (Re) Writing the Black Female Body or Cleansing Her
Soul: Narratives of Generational Traumas and Healing
in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory 93
TAMMIE JENKINS
6 Female Mentorship in Krik? Krak! Recovering History
through the Silent Canvas 106
LISA MUIR
PART III
The Global Classroom, Transnational Community, and
Cross-Cultural Communication 125
7 Out of the Classroom and Into the Community 127
DEBORAH VAN DUINEN AND ROB KENAGY
8 Teaching Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying and
The Farming of Bones: Experiences from a Class in Ghana 139
MOUSSA TRAORE
9 Teaching Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak! Through
Global Learning Classrooms 167
ANITA BAKSH AND SCHUYLER ESPRIT
10 A Comprehensive Resource Guide to Reading and
Teaching Brother, I’m Dying: Background, History, and
Context: Part A 180
CELUCIEN L. JOSEPH
11 A Comprehensive Resource Guide to Reading and
Teaching Brother, I’m Dying: Criticisms, Thematic
Analysis, & An Eight-Week Teaching Model: Part B 217
CELUCIEN L. JOSEPH
Contents ix
PART IV
Citizen-Artist and Teaching as Activism 263
12 Edwidge Danticat’s “Citizen-Artist Curriculum with
Columbia College Freshmen” 265
STAN WEST
13 The Exigency of the Floating Homeland and Engaging
Postnationalisms in the Classroom: Approaches to
Teaching Edwidge Danticat’s Create Dangerously:
The Immigrant Artist at Work 280
MAIA L. BUTLER
14 Creating Cultural Sensitivity in the Writing Classroom
with Edwidge Danticat’s Create Dangerously 307
CAMILA ALVAREZ
15 When the Periphery Comes to the Center: From Writing
Across the Curriculum to Public Sphere Pedagogy 327
MARVIN E. HOBSON
List of Contributors 353
Index 359
