Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Summer 2026 - ENGL 437W D100

Seminar in American Literatures (4)

Idea of Ancestry

Class Number: 4310

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    May 11 – Aug 10, 2026: Wed, 4:30–8:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units or two 300-division English courses.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Advanced seminar in American literature. May be organized by author, genre, period, or critical approach. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

The Idea of Ancestry: Reading (African American Poetry) Backwards from Terrance Hayes

This course examines the work of one of our greatest living poets to think about genealogy, influence, identity, self-creation, form, and the kinds of quasi-familial love we literary people have for the texts that shape us.  OR: it's an attempt to marry the performing-without-a-net excitement of encountering obviously brilliant new literature on which there's (almost) no academic criticism to an introduction to the history of not only African American poetry but also African American history more broadly.  (Particularly with Hayes, an African Americanist or even just Americanist approach may fit better than "diasporic" models popular among Black British and Canadian writers seeking to affiliate themselves with the much larger and more influential African American tradition.)  Our seminar starts and ends with Terrance Hayes: his breakthrough 2010 collection Lighthead, which earned him the (U.S.) National Book Award and a MacArthur “genius grant,” and his latest collection, 2018’s American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin.  In between, the course cycles through three widening gyres, each one complicating our understandings of influence, form, and self-creation.  We ponder Hayes’ increasingly multilayered tributes to three great 20th-century African American poets: Gwendolyn Brooks, Etheridge Knight, and Wanda Coleman.  (All are awesome, edgy, dark, brilliant yet “relatable.”)  Or, if you prefer, the course tries to pack a fourteen-line form, the sonnet, into a thirteen-week semester.  The first quatrain presents the “golden shovel,” the form Hayes invented in tribute to Brooks’ famous poem “we real cool.”  The second deals with “The Idea of Ancestry,” the title of Etheridge Knight’s best-known poem and the starting point for the book Hayes wrote about him.  The third examines Hayes’ debt to Wanda Coleman, who invented the “American Sonnet” form, and who examines her own influences in Wicked Enchantment.  And in this rather baroque metaphor, the closing couplet, which will both tie up the class and open it out all over again, will, of course, be collectively written by us in seminar.

 

Grading

  • Attendance and Participation 20%
  • Weekly Rabbit Holes 30%
  • Final Paper Proposal (1-2pp plus bibliography) 5%
  • Final Paper Draft (no less than 10 pp) 15%
  • Final Paper Revision (no less than 10 pp) 30%

REQUIREMENTS:

Course requirements are pretty self-explanatory, except for the rabbit holes.  Most of these poets—Hayes and Coleman in particular—use a lot of allusions.  A “rabbit hole” is simply you asking, “What do I need to know in order to understand this poem?” and then tracking it down on the Internet and/or in the library resources online—and, as necessary, tracking down what you need to know in order to understand what you need to know.  You get 1 point for tracking down something useful about the poet or poem, ideally something the prof didn’t know (easier than you might think), 2 points for showing how it illuminates the poet or poem, and 3 points for a hermeneutic tour de force.  You must travel down at least one rabbit hole per week, and may do as many as five.  For example, if you read Coleman’s “Black Alice Laments (—after Lewis Carroll)”, and you note that the title refers to Alice in Wonderland, no points, because duh.  Track down the poem’s repeated references to Xanadu as references to Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan,” one grudging point (barely).  Persuasively identify a link between Coleridge and Carroll, two points.  Use that link to nail the meaning of the poem, three points.  (If this seems hard, it isn't: students KILL this part of the course.)
Another note: in this class, "draft" does not mean "6 sketchy pages, then a few words about what the rest will probably look like."  It means the absolute best you can do, so in revision we can take your work to the next level, which is what that "W" designation is all about.  Drafts that fail to meet this standard will not be accepted.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Terrance Hayes, Lighthead (Penguin Books, 2010)


ISBN: 978-0143116967

Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (Penguin Books, 2018)


ISBN: 978-0143133186

Terrance Hayes, To Float in the Space Between: A Life and Work in Conversation with the Life and Work of Etheridge Knight (Wave Books, 2018)


ISBN: 978-1940696614

Wanda Coleman, Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems.  Ed. and intro. Terrance Hayes.  (Black Sparrow Press, 2020)


ISBN: 978-1574232462

RECOMMENDED READING:

Peter Kahn, Ravi Shankar, and Patricia Smith, eds.  The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, 2nd ed. (U of Arkansas P, 2019) [do not need to buy; selections available on Canvas]


ISBN: 978-1682260951

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Department Undergraduate Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE Re 300 and 400 level courses: 75% of spaces in 300 level English courses, and 100% of spaces in 400 level English courses, are reserved for declared English Major, Minor, Extended Minor, Joint Major, and Honours students only, until open enrollment begins.

For all On-Campus Courses, please note the following:
- To receive credit for the course, students must complete all requirements.
- Tutorials/Seminars WILL be held the first week of classes.
- When choosing your schedule, remember to check "Show lab/tutorial sections" to see all Lecture/Seminar/Tutorial times required.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.