Migration Matters: Narratives of Immigration to the U.S. 4219-SC0012
The course aims to familiarize the students with major trends in 20th- and 21st-century immigrant literature in the US. The literary texts selected for analysis will shed light on the cultural context at the start of migration from various parts of the world, including Asia, Europe (including Eastern Europe), Latin America and the Caribbean. Regardless of the cultural specificity of a given ethnic/national group, in-class discussions will focus on the following aspects of the experience of immigration as reflected in literary texts: acculturation in the US vs. maintaining one’s own cultural specificity, hybrid identities, impact of gender and sexual orientation on the experience of immigration, differences between first-generation immigrants and their offspring, the context of race and social class, etc. Secondary sources will help capture the socio-cultural context characteristic of a given group of immigrants.
Selected issues to be covered during the classes:
- features of the literary genre of immigrant narrative;
- migration from (Eastern) Europe to the US in fiction;
- migrants and the genre of the memoir;
- literary texts of immigrants from South Asian;
- Vietnam War and refugee literature;
- immigrants from the Caribbean in literary texts;
- the Latinx population and contemporary immigrant narratives.
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, a student:
Knowledge:
- knows the terminology employed for the analysis of minority literatures;
- is familiar with major topics and trends of contemporary literature of ethnic minorities in the United States.
Skills:
- can take part in discussions of literary texts and identify crucial elements of the structure of a minority literary text;
- is able to offer a detailed analysis of a literary text in speech and writing with the use of terminology proper for the studied body of literary texts.
Competences:
- is aware of the ethnic diversity of contemporary US literature;
- shows sensitivity to the role of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class and other elements of identity for the functioning of individuals and groups within a larger society.
Assessment criteria
Assessment criteria:
- active participation in the classes - 25%
- response papers / home assignments - 35%
- final essay - 40%
Bibliography
Selected literary texts by:
Anthony Bukowski
Sandra Cisneros
Junot Diaz
Stuart Dybek
Cristina Hernandez
Eva Hoffmann
Jhumpa Lahiri
Bharati Mukherjee
Viet Than Nguyen
Selected secondary sources:
Aciman, Andre, ed. Letters of Transit: Reflections on Exile, Identity, Language, and Loss. The New Press, 1999.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Aunt Lute Books, 1987.
Cordasco, Francesco. Dictionary of American Immigration History. The Scarecrow Press, 1990.
Creet, Julia and Andreas Kitzmann, eds. Memory and Migration: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Memory Studies. Toronto UP, 2011.
Hodes, Martha, ed. Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. New York UP, 1999.
Minh-ha, Trinh T. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Indiana UP, 1989.
(Course materials may be changed).
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: