Rewriting America: Multi-Ethnic Literature in the United States

Catalog description

This course will explore how BIPOC thinkers have challenged the domination narratives of nationhood in the United States by studying poetry and prose by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and migrant authors. While the focus will be on more recent literatures (from the mid-twentieth century through the present), the syllabus will also include samples of earlier texts by writers like W.E.B. DuBois, or Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins. Other texts may include those written by Gloria Anzaldúa, Achy Obejas, Luci Tapahonso, Maxine Hong Kingston, Nnedi Okorafor, and Jhumpa Lahiri, among others. Students will interact with these texts through guided reading, discussion, presentations, and written analysis. They will also be challenged to expand their learning beyond the classroom by applying the concepts discussed to something they encounter in their own lives.