Literature, Culture, and Social Justice

Catalog description

This course explores how literature imagines cultural identities, relationships between cultural groups, systematic oppression of particular groups, and efforts to resolve intergroup conflicts and achieve social justice. For the purposes of this course, culture will be understood in terms of such categories as nation, region, language, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, family structure, gender, sexuality, age, and disability. Through the critical analysis of literature and through personal reflection on literary texts, students will learn to recognize, describe, and understand their own and others’ cultures, the histories of these cultures, and their divergences and convergences. Students will also consider how knowledge of multiple cultures can form a foundation for ethical decision-making and action in a variety of public arenas. Appropriate for student in all majors.