Junior Colloquium: Race and American Culture
AMST 196
Fall 2009
| Section:
01
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This junior colloquium will introduce students to several texts that offer key interventions within the study of race in American literature and culture. Among the topics we will examine are the ways in which race as a lense of analysis has produced critiques of industrial modernity, nationalism, citizenship, and identity, and how racializing discourses and antiracist critiques intersect with feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, and postmodern discourses. While most texts will focus on the U.S. context, we will consider some works of postcolonial theory that have provided influential and productive models for theorizing the cultural politics of race. We will also consider a number of recent critiques of the institutional role of ethnic studies and identity politics. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Interpretation, Writing
This seminar will require students to closely analyze a range of theoretical texts, evaluating their approaches in several response papers, and then developing their own interpretation of a cultural text in a 12-15 page final research paper.
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Homi Bhabha, THE LOCATION OF CULTURE
Anne Cheng, THE MELANCHOLY OF RACE: PSYCHOANALYSIS, ASSIMILATION, AND HIDDEN GRIEF
Rey Chow, WRITING DIASPORA: TACTICS OF INTERVENTION IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL STUDIES
Paul Gilroy, THE BLACK ATLANTIC: MODERNITY AND DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS
Christina Klein, COLD WAR ORIENTALISM: ASIA IN THE MIDDLEBROW IMAGINATION
Eric Lott, LOVE AND THEFT: BLACKFACE MINSTRELSY AND THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS
Additional writings by Wendy Brown, Fredric Jameson, Walter Benn Michaels, and others.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Class participation; several short response papers; one 5-7 page paper; a final 12-15 page research paper. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This is a junior colloquium in American studies. |
| Instructor(s): Tang,Amy Cynthia Times: .M.W... 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: CAMS 3; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 10 | | |
| Seats Available: 9 | GRAD: 0 | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: X | SO: X | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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