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Course Description
Students will be introduced to a sampling of some seminal texts in various U.S. ethnic literary traditions. For the sake of demonstrating the dynamic nature of each particular tradition, these texts have been paired with a sampling of shorter, more contemporary works. Given that many of these texts are acts of resistance to dominant society’s forms of categorization, we will be exploring some of the histories that have engendered these texts. Relevant topics that will be discussed in class are migrations, racism, sexism, marginalization, nationalism, colonization, anti-racism, decolonization, resilience and celebration.
Course Objectives
- Students will be able to define the term canon.
- Students will gain an understanding of the social and historical contexts that give rise to the various ethnic/racial canons.
- Students will gain an understanding of the iceberg of culture and its implications.
- Students will gain an awareness of their own familial, ethnic, racial, and/or cultural positioning within the United States.
- Students will come to understand some of the experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) in the United States.
- Students will learn close reading techniques in order to become careful readers of literary texts.
- Students will learn how to structure an effective, short analytic paper.
- Students will demonstrate the ability to effectively use the grammatical and stylistic conventions of Dominant Academic/professional Discourse (DAD) in writing.
Required Texts:
- Storyteller, Leslie Marmon Silko. Published: 1981.
- Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya. Published: 1973.
- Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin. Published: 1953.
- Homebase, Shawn Wong. Published: 1979.
- Other required texts for the course may be found on Moodle and are designated by (M) on the syllabus.
- Teacher: Alma Alvarez