L.008.32700 At Borders and Crossroads: Chicano/a Literature

Lehrende: Tanja Reiffenrath

Veranstaltungsart: Proseminar

Orga-Einheit: Anglistik/Amerikanistik

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Semesterwochenstunden: 2

Unterrichtssprache: Englisch

Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 50

Voraussetzungen und Empfehlungen:
Introduction to Literary Studies

Literatur:
Primary texts as well as excerpts from secondary readings will be made available in a reader at the beginning of the semester. We will be using koaLA as a discussion forum and a means to collect additional course material.

Kommentar:
The Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s initiated a strong political consciousness amongst Mexican-Americans, turned the previously derogatory terms ‘Chicano’ and ‘Chicana’ into assertions of ethnic pride, and sparked the creation of a vast body of literature by writers of Mexican descent.  
We will begin our survey of Chicano and Chicana literature with Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales’s famous epic poem "I am Joaquin" in which the speaker voices the social inequalities in the United States at the time of the Movement. Joaquin’s struggle to fashion an identity in the push-and-pull of American, Mexican, and indigenous cultures and traditions will become a recurring issue in this class when we probe stories and poems set in the Southwest border region or the Latino neighborhoods of American metropolises. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera, Lorna Dee Cervantes’s poetry, Sandra Cisneros’s coming-of-age novel The House on Mango Street and Luis Rodriguez’s narratives of a gang-plagued East L.A., narrators and characters cross borders, negotiate generational conflicts, and attempt to straddle the perceived divide between community and individuality.
In our readings of Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima and Sandra Cisneros’s "Woman Hollering Creek" we will encounter the weeping women, patron saints and indigenous healers of Mexican folklore, as well as La Malinche, the highly contested and iconic woman who – legend has it – was involved in the Spanish conquest. We will analyze their literary representations and study their re-writes and re-appropriations in view of gender roles in Mexican-American culture.
As part of the module on "Methodische Grundlagen," this course will introduce you to (critical) reading strategies and the basics of term paper writing.

Wichtige Hinweise:
In order to enroll in this course, you need to have completed the Introduction to Literary Studies successfully.
Please be aware that this course is structured around your active participation and critical discussion of the texts. You are required to keep up with the weekly reading assignments (there will be occasional unannounced quizzes) and contribute to the online discussion board. Other credit requirements will be discussed in the first session.