Instructor: Garza
TR 02:00 PM – 03:20 PM

W.E.B. Du Bois theorizes in his book, The Souls of Black Folk, something he calls ‘double  consciousness.’ He refers to “this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others,  of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (Du  Bois, Souls). It is this doubleness that people of the border, of diaspora, of migration and immigration exist within. Within not existing enough within American ideals. Not existing enough in one’s own culture. It is this sense of losing one’s geographical homeland, or to have a connection to land beyond bordered constructions. In this course, we will dive into the writings of Latine, Palestinian, Korean, and Japanese poets in America and will consider the implications of an identity of belonging as we read poets writing about the experience of living in a country that has a history of ‘othering’ people deemed ‘invasive’. We’ll pursue several lines of inquiry as we read:  

• What patterns and themes emerge in these writings by diverse poets about borders, immigration, and diasporic experience?  

• What can we piece together about coloniality in poetics when we map out each poets’ relationship to militarization, migration, borders, and generational trauma?  

• How can we use transnational feminism, diasporic theory, and decolonial theory thoughtfully to help us understand the writing of our chosen poets?  

• What can we learn from analyzing our chosen poets about placeness, ‘home’ as a concept,  and belonging in the U.S.?  

Primary readings will be paired with critical texts in order to introduce students to theoretical underpinnings of these conversations with a focus on: transnational feminist theory (Seoyoung  Choi, Song-Woo Hur, Gloria Anzaldúa, Maria Lugones), diaspora theory (Karsten Paerregaard, Maria Koinova, Russell King and Anastasia Christou), and decolonial theory (Edward Said and Nina  Glick Schiller). Our discussions will utilize these theories in order to approach the colonized experiences, governmental and military upheaval, and structures of oppression and ‘othering’ that are critiqued in the poetry we will be exploring. Poetic focuses will be grounded in narrative,  lyrical, and docupoetics.  

Note: Background knowledge of Latine, Palestinian, Japanese, and Korean histories, literatures,  and/or cultures is not expected.