Introduction to Latina/o Literature: Border, Citizen, Body
ENGL 279
Fall 2014 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
AMST 278 |
The heterogeneous group of 50 million migrants, exiles, dual- and split citizens, refugees, documented and undocumented peoples of Spanish Caribbean and Latin American descent living in the U.S. are all Latinos. At least three threads hold these many "Latinos" together: an immigrant relation to the English language through Spanish; the experience of displacement into el norte from former colonies of Spain with longstanding and ongoing conflicted relations to the U.S.; and cultural, aesthetic, and economic connections to the departed place. This course will examine Latina/o aesthetics in relation to contradictory phenomena that raise questions today about borders, citizenship, and embodiment. By engaging the Latina/o imaginary in fiction and other arts, we will read the emergence today of dreamers and the minuteman militia--that is, of consumer drives towards representations of "spicy" and "exotic" brown bodies as well as laws in Arizona, Texas, and California that endow police with the power to discern visually whether a brown body is illegal or not. Several questions and themes will come into view in our readings of literature, cinema, and music: How does the Latina/o artisitic imaginary depict distinct migrant journeys and rural or urban forms of labor? How do discussions of race, ethnicity, and sexuality in relation to Latina/o aesthetics complicate the existing definitions of these terms in the U.S.? How do artists interrogate heteronormativity in Latina/o and dominant U.S. cultures? How do they conceive of their specific crises of representation, which include the demand for realism and personal narratives by critics and mainstream readers? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST)(ENGL)(ENGL-Literature) |
Major Readings:
Students will obtain: ...y no se lo tragó la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (Tomás Rivera; *trans. Evangelina Vigil-Piñon*, 1971); Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father (Richard Rodriguez, 1992); and Drown (Junot Díaz, 1997). Several course readings will be on Moodle (by Mae Ngai, Suzanne Oboler, Gloria Anzaldúa, Miguel Algarín, Pedro Pietri, Judith Butler). Films on reserve or for purchase: Freak (1998), Sin Nombre (2009), Piñero (2001), El Súper (1979), Balseros (2002).
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Examinations and Assignments:
Attendance, 3 short papers (3-4 pages), and a final research paper (8-10 pages) |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literatures of Difference requirement and contributes to the Race and Ethnicity concentration in the English major. It also helps satisfy the Comparative Americas requirement for American Studies majors. |
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