Heng, Geraldine. "Teaching early global literatures." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/teaching-early-global-literatures. [Date accessed].

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Teaching early global literatures

History does not begin when Europe arrives

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Geraldine Heng
University of Texas, Austin

History is understood through narrative. The stories that are written, repeated, and taught give shape to the past. By decentering European narratives in our teaching, we can expand the scope of historical understanding that our students carry with them into the world. Studying early global literatures shakes the preconceived notions about the past that students bring into the classroom, especially when they are introduced to early global civilizations that were far more complex and modern than Europe.

Further learning

Activity

Collaborative student research

A multidisciplinary and student-centered approach for early modern professors, inspired by Geraldine Heng’s Teaching Early Global Literatures and Cultures.

Geraldine Heng
Video

Premodern race as a critical canon

Heng offers insight on approaches to teaching the traditional, canonized literature of premodern Europe through the lens of premodern critical race studies.

Geraldine Heng

Recommended

Syllabus

Race in early modern drama

This course asks students to read plays and masques from early modern England, Spain, and France to understand how race was crafted through perfomrace and culture.

Noémie Ndiaye
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Othello and the epithet of "Moor"

Ambereen Dadabhoy uses Shakespeare’s Othello as a text through which students can think about contemporary Islamophobia.

Ambereen Dadabhoy
Essay

Race-making and the myth of Ham

The curse of Ham mythology is a persistent and deeply rooted part of our contemporary consciousness, manifesting itself in literature, film, politics, and popular entertainment. But what is the “curse of Ham,” and how did it take shape?

Chouki El Hamel

Selected annotated bibliography