A Nation of Immigrants?
WRCT 113
Spring 2019
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ENGL 113 |
| Certificates: South Asia Studies |
America is a nation of immigrants. This ideological epithet has come to define the American experience as one of opportunity, advancement, and national incorporation. This course will interrogate the popularity of this story: How did the American experience become defined through an immigrant experience? What experiences does this narrative absorb and what experiences does it erase?
To answer these questions, we will practice close reading, critical thinking, and consistent writing in order to exhume narratives embedded in a variety of texts such as legal documents, political speeches, poetry, social movements, and short stories in order to explore how this particular American experience is constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed in the social and cultural imaginary. The first part of the course will historicize the narrative of "America as a nation of immigrants" and investigate how it developed throughout the 20th century. We will then consider what stories this national narrative mutes by exploring how contemporary writers take up, challenge, and change the story of America as a nation of immigrants. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA WRCT |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Readings will include legislative texts like the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, historical texts by Paul Spickard, and fiction and poetry by Claudia Rankine, Sherman Alexie, Edwidge Danticat, Achy Obejas, Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros, Chimamanda Adichie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Díaz, and more.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Assignments will stress writing as a process of drafting, revising, and polishing and will include weekly reading responses, two short close reading papers, research proposal, and final paper. |
| Instructor(s): Silber,Lauren Times: ..T.R.. 10:20AM-11:40AM; Location: 116MTV102; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 0 | JR major: 0 | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 1 | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 5 | FR: 8 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 5 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 2 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 3 |
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