Reimagining the Line: Contemporary Arts and Political Imagination at the Mexico-US Border

Catalog description

This course explores contemporary literary works, film, and art from and/or about the Mexico-US border. Concentrating on its political and aesthetic dimensions, the course focuses on the divisive nature of the border, the systematic exploitation of its gender and ethnic minorities, and the freedom produced by border experiences and arts. Students will analyze how border writers and artists come up with rhetorical and political strategies that allow them to reimagine themselves and their bi-national territory, and to generate challenging notions of citizenship, nationhood, and culture to establish more fluid and socially responsible modes of representation. The course pays close attention to works and creators that understand the border experience as one of instability and hardship, but also as a form of ideological resistance, subversive power, and freedom. Students are encouraged to bring their own interests and experiences to the course.