Reading Latinidad: Ethnicity and Strategies of Representation
ENGL 310
Spring 2013 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
AMST 355 |
How might we read Latinidad? More fundamentally, how is ethnicity constructed? Our close readings of Latino/a literature and critical essays on ethnicity will help us reflect on what's at stake in such questions. Too often the cultural production of the ethnic subject is read as a transparent document that exhibits some truth or essence about the community in question. The theoretical component of our seminar explores the logic and ideological machinations behind this kind of reading practice through examinations of ethnicity as a historical category and an analytic paradigm in literary studies. By investigating the repertoire of narrative strategies through which Latino/a authors have represented ethnicity and identity, we will develop a more nuanced and tactical understanding of how the literary and the political intersect. In every set of texts, we will scrutinize a particular component of representation (the body, language, sexuality, affect, or space) to focus, but not constrict, our readings. The ultimate goal of our seminar exchanges is to read literature that troubles, expands, and destabilizes Latinidad as a fixed conceptual category. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST) |
Major Readings:
Acosta, Oscar Zeta. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE BROWN BUFFALO
Rivera, Tomas. ...Y NO SE LO TRAGO LA TIERRA/AND THE EARTH DID NOT DEVOUR HIM
Alvarez, Julia. HOW THE GRACIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS
Díaz, Junot. THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO
García, Cristina. DREAMING IN CUBAN
Obejas, Achy. WE CAME ALL THE WAY FROM CUBA SO YOU COULD DRESS LIKE THIS?
Rodríguez, Abraham. THE BOY WITHOUT A FLAG
Yunque, Edgardo Vega. THE LAMENTABLE JOURNEY OF OMAHA BIGELOW INTO THE IMPENETRABLE LOISAIDA JUNGLE
Chow, Rey. THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM and ETHICS AFTER IDEALISM (selections)
Viego, Antonio. DEAD SUBJECTS: TOWARD A POLITICS OF LOSS IN LATINO STUDIES (selections)
Bakhtin, Mikhail. THE DIALOGIC IMAGINATION (selections)
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Examinations and Assignments:
Students will submit 1-page weekly response papers and also post 2 discussion questions on Blackboard by 10pm the night before class meets. Groups of 2 students will be asked to lead discussion and pose questions each week. Grades will be based on response papers, attendance and participation, group work, and a midterm (6-8) and final paper (10-12). |
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. |
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