Introduction to Latinx Literatures and Expressive Practices

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the major themes, topics, and debates in the field of Latinx literary studies through the lens of comparative Hemispheric intellectual history. While the term “Latinx literatures” refers to the literary cultures of peoples of Latin American descent living in the U.S., the term also describes a broad range of intersectional, racial, cultural, gendered, and political commitments and alliances in U.S. literary culture and, more broadly, in the national public sphere. Latinx writers and cultural agents have played a central role in the construction of the U.S. since its inception and this course focuses on how Latinx writers have envisioned conceptions of home, nation, community, as well as their relationship with the broader tradition of resistance writing. In the process, we will study and critique the conditions under which Latinx texts and bodies have been granted, denied, resisted, or demanded cultural inclusion. Primary Latinx texts across genres and major literary movements will be complemented by comparative and interdisciplinary examples from the broader tradition of Black and Asian American literary, political, and expressive practices.