Place, Belonging, and Sound in the 20th c. Latina/o/x, Black, & Caribbean Imaginations--NYC
ENGL 215
Spring 2019 not offered
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| Course Cluster: Caribbean Studies Minor, Queer Studies |
Throughout the latter 20th century, New York City has held a voyeuristic allure as a site of excess and pleasure that is nevertheless "seedy," "gritty," and segregated. Through select literary, cinematic, and performance optics of Latina/o/x, Black, and Caribbean writers and artists, this course will focus on memory, representation, form, sound, and the imagination in the layered and shifting site of mid-20th to 21st century New York City--and even more specifically, of Harlem, the Bronx, the Lower East Side, Brooklyn, and Elizabeth, NJ. Fictionalizations, poeticizations, and performances of first-person memories and re-imaginings of overheard stories from older generations about life in the U.S. South and life in the Caribbean will feature in the works that we will study in this course. |
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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: (CBST-MN)(ENGL)(ENGL-Literature) |
Major Readings:
Required Readings:
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, HARLEM IS NOWHERE
Piri Thomas, DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS (set in the 1940s and 50s)
James Baldwin, ANOTHER COUNTRY (set in the late 50s)
Junot Díaz, THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (which move from the 40s to the 90s, from the Dominican Republic to the US, not chronologically)
Juan Flores' essays will be on Moodle.
The following films will be on reserve, though it's the student's prerogative to purchase: Short Eyes (1977); El Súper (1979); Piñero (2001); Downtown 81 (1981); Radiant Child (2010); Do the Right Thing (1989); John Leguizamo's Freak (1998).
We will also read select Nuyorican poetry of the 1970s and Jean-Michel Basquiat's visual art and poetry of the 80s (to be posted on Moodle), in addition to viewing snippets from the feature films Midnight Cowboy (1969), Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), and the documentary, Public Speaking (2010).
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Examinations and Assignments:
Students will write a few short papers and a final paper.
We will attend two-three performances in NYC and there will be screenings of films and performances to attend on campus as part of the course requirements. Live/embodied research will be part of this course. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literatures of Difference major requirement and contributes to the American Literature and Race & Ethnicity concentrations of the English major. |
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