Major literary and cultural texts in the Chicana/o tradition from origins to the present.

What does it mean to be Latinx? This course will introduce students to major authors, genres, and movements in Latinx literary history. We will take a thematic approach, examining how Latinx writers from various communities (Puerto Rican, Mexican American, Cuban American, Dominican American, Central American) have characterized such concepts as language and assimilation, gender and sexuality, race and indigeneity, and borders and migration. We will also put some pressure on the category of Latinx. How do the experiences and histories of the various groups described under that label benefit from and/or resist identification as a single ethnicity? Most importantly, we will ask what literature has to offer as a way of understanding Latinx experiences. What kinds of knowledges and experiences do novels, poems, stories, and plays produce that are different from other kinds of discourses? This class satisfies the Literatures in English requirement for the English major.

Book List:

Ernesto Quiñones, Bodega Dreams; Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek; Oscar Cásares, Where We Come From; Angie Cruz, Dominicana

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills