Instructor: Boutelle
TR 12:30 PM – 1:50 PM
In this survey of U.S. Ethnic Literature, we’ll be reading contemporary novels and autobiographies from racialized immigrants, migrants, and natural-born citizens who explore the theme of family. In particular, we will consider the tensions between the idealized nuclear family (which is almost always coded as a non-ethnic white family) and the more complicated, fractured, dysfunctional, and, frankly, real representations of family that occur in novels by Asian, Arab, Black, and Latinx writers in the U.S. We’ll consider how the ethnic, racial, and cultural histories of these novels shape and challenge our understandings of what it means to be an “American family.” How do language, culture, and values change with movement to/from the U.S.? What kinds of tensions exist between and across generations? How do the insider/outsider perspectives of the characters in these works affect how we understand concepts of identity, nationality, ethnicity, and belonging?