CRITICAL WHITENESS STUDIES AND TEACHING NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE

Abstract

This essay makes the case for approaching classic White literature through the lens of critical whiteness studies. I give a summary of Critical Whiteness studies and then talk about successful applications of Critical Whiteness methods in teaching nineteenth-century American literature. Incorporating Critical Whiteness studies as part of decolonizing the curriculum reorients how we teach canonical White literature that remains on our syllabi and helps students recognize ongoing discourses of White supremacy today, in addition to broadening the selection of what we teach in English departments