Course Designation: Literature After 1900

COURSE CODE:
BTP2NA_T_8 BTPNA_T_16*
PhD /

SPRING 2018

Course Designation: Literature after 1900

CHICANO/A CULTURE and ART

Time & Place: Fri 10: 00–11: 40, St 111

Instructors: Lenke Németh

Agustin Cadena

Tel.: 52 512 900/22069 /

Office Hours:Wed 12:00–12:50, Fri 9:00–9:50, Rm 118, Mbl

Office Hours:Wed 14:00-16:00, Rm 118, Mbl.

COURSE SYNOPSIS

This multi-genre course offers a comprehensive view of Chicano/a experience and voice in contemporary U.S. society with the aim of sensitizing students tothe diversity and variety of this distinct culture in the American cultural landscape. The first half of the course situates the Chicano/as in their historical and sociopolitical context and exploressymbols, images, legendary figures as well as myths of ancient Mexican culture that not only re-surface but also shape the literary and visual artistic expressions of the Chicanos/as in the U.S.

The second partaims to provide a close reading of selected works by major Chicana writers emerging in the American literary scene from the 1990sto demonstrate the varied and changing representation of the Chicana subject in her complex socio-political and cultural context. Special attention will be given to themes such as the cultural and psychic effects of losing the homeland and the accompanying complex processes of identity negotiation, which is central to the signification of these writers’ works.The in-depth study of the primary texts will constantly point to and rely on the historical, geopolitical, and mythological antecedents that shaped this body of artistic expression.

This team-taught seminar course also provides a review of the most important theoretical issues and concepts related to the representation of Chicano/as in literature. Relevant insights from border theories, Chicana feminism, and ethnic studies willbe incorporated to study borderland subjectivity.Authors selected for the course includeChicanaSandra Cisneros (1954-), Cherrie Moraga (1952-),and Ana Castillo (1953-);Mexican American Helena Maria Viramontes (1954-).

REQUIREMENTS

Writing Assignments

[1] Response paper:Students are required to write a 400-word response paper (printed)on the critical study assigned for each class.The response papers should involve a critical reflection on the secondary work/s read.

[2]Midterm test: an in-class paper that assesses your familiarity with the texts, their contexts, and the critical studies discussed up to that point in the semester.

[3] Take-home essay: an analytical paper of 3000-3500 words is to be written on any topic related to the themes in the seminar. Format: 2,5 cm margins, Times New Roman (12) double spaced, full and correct citation, alphabetical works cited (MLA Style), fastened, with student’s name on each page.The cover sheet must also contain the following statement: “Hereby I certify that the essay conforms to international copyright and plagiarism rules and regulations,” and also the signature of the student.

In their take-home essaysstudents are required to cite at least FIVEbooks, book chapters and/or journal articles of academic standard. The referenced sources should either be borrowed from the library or downloaded from an online database that meets scholarly requirements (such as Arts and Humanities Full Text (ProQuest), JSTOR or EBSCO).

Please note that topics for these essays should be approved by the instructors, hence essay outlines and proposals (with thesis statement and theoretical concerns specified, as well as potential critical readings to be incorporated), of about a page in length should be handed in byMay 11th (Week 13). In case you have questions concerning the choice, tutorial consultation and advice is recommended and available.

In-class presentation: a 10-minute talk on a critical or a theoretical essay related to the work/topic on the agenda. It should serve as a good starting point for the discussion of the relevant topic. Students are strongly advised to speak without notes as much as possible.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Students are informed that the quality of theirwritten and spoken performance will count significantly toward their final grade

Response paper: 10%

Presentation: 10%

Participation: 10%

Mid-term paper: 30%

Take-home essay: 40%

N. B. Absences: no more than three absences are allowed. Each absence counts as one point reduction in the overall achievement. In the case of a longer absence (either due to illness, or official leave), the tutor and the student will come to an agreement of how to solve the problem.

No re-sit for the midterm paper.

Required reading

The course material is available either in print format or electronically (marked E) in the Institute library.

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

(1) Feb 16 Orientation

Introduction.

(2) Feb 23

Chicanos – political and cultural identity; the roots of Chicano/a identity.
Reading:Dean Franco, “Ethnic Writing/Writing Ethnicity: The Critical Conceptualization of Chicano Identity.” Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, vol 2 winter 1999.

(3) March 2

The Chicano Movement
Reading:Marc Simon Rodriguez, “A Movement Made of Young Mexican Americans Seeking Change": Critical Citizenship, Migration, and the Chicano Movement in Texas and Wisconsin, 1960-1975.” The Western Historical Quarterly,. 34. 3 ( 2003), pp 274-299.

(4) March 9

Icons of the Movement
Political discrimination, ideology, masculinity, racism.
Reading: José David Saldivar, “Changing Borderland Subjectivities.” 57-72. pp 15
Luiz Valdez, The Zoot Suit (1978) (pp 50), also Excerpts from Luiz Valdez, The Zoot Suit (movie, 1981) pp 65

(5) March 16 HOLIDAY

(6) March 23

Roots of present-day Chicano/a culture and art. Street art, street culture
Mexican feminine archetypes: Coatlicue-Tonantzin Guadalupe, La Llorona, La Malinche, La Xtabay, The Mulata de Cordoba
Reading: E. Carmen Ramos, “The Latino Presence in Americana Art.” American Art 26.2 (2012) 7-13. JSTOR

(7) March 30 GOOD FRIDAY

(8) April 6CONSULTATION WEEK

(9) April 13

MIDTERM PAPER

(10) April 20

Helena Maria Viramontes, “The Cariboo Café” (pp 18), “The Moths” (8 p) (1985), (E)
Sandra Cisneros, “Never Marry a Mexican” (1991), (E)
Reading: Fernández, Roberta. “The Cariboo Cafe:” Helena María Viramontes
Discourses with her Social Contexts.”Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal
17. 1-2(1989) 71-85. pp 14

(11) April 27

Ana Castillo, So Far From God (1993) (E)
Sirias Silvio and Richard McGarry. “Rebellion and Tradition in Ana Castillo’s So Far From God and Sylvia López-Medina’s Cantora.” MELUS 25.2 (2000), 83-100.

(12) May 4

Cherríe Moraga, The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea (1995)
Reading: Micaela Diaz Sanchez, “Impossible Patriots. The Exiled Queer Citizen in Cherríe Moraga’sThe Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea.” Maufort and De Wagter 141-154.

(13) May 11

Helena Maria Viramontes, Under the Feet of Jesus (1996)
Reading:Johannessen, Lene M. “The Meaning of Place in Helena Maria Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus.” Johannessen 147- 161. pp 14

May 14th ESSAY DUE

(14) May 18

Closing

LITERATURE SUGGESTED FOR PRESENTATIONS:

Sonja Saldívar-Hul, “Reading Tejana, Reading Chicana.” Saldívar-Hull 1-27. pp 27

Randy Shaw, “The Immigrant Rights Movement Explodes.” 226-249. pp 23

Letícia M. Garza-Falcón, “History as Narrative.” 22-36.

Martin D. Rosen and James Fisher, “Chicano Park and the Chicano Park Murals: Barrio, Logan, City of San Diego, California.” The Public Historian 23. 4. (2001) 91-111. JSTOR pp20

Latorre Guisela, Chapter two: “The Chicano Movement and Indigenist Murals: The Formation of a Nationalist Canon and Identity.” Walls of Empowerment, 2008.

pp 66-99. JSTOR

Lipsitz, George. “Not Just Another Social Movement: Poster Art and the Movimiento Chicano”American Studies in a Moment of Danger, U of Minnesota, 2001. pp. 169-184.

Carbonell, Ana María. “From Llorona to Gritona: Coatlicue in Feminist Tales by Viramontes and Cisneros.” MELUS 24.2.(1999):19-29.

Johannessen, Lene M. The Aesthetics of Time in Chicano Literature. Johannessen 167- 189.

Sternbach, Nancy Saporta. “’A Deep Racial Memory of Love’: The Chicana Feminism of Cherríe Moraga.” Horno-Delgado 48- 62. (AAI)

Saldívar-Hull, Sonja. “Chicana Feminisms: From Ethnic Idnetity t Global Solidarity.” 27-59.

Saldívar-Hull, Sonja. “Mestiza Consicuouness and Politics: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/LaFrontera.

Sirias Silvio and Richard McGarry. “Rebellion and Tradition in Ana Castillo’s So Far From God and Sylvia López-Medina’s Cantora.” MELUS 25.2 (2000), 83-100.

Alarcón, Norma. “The Sardonic Powers of the Erotic in the Work of Ana Castillo.” Horno-Delgado 94- 111. (AAI)

Roland Walter, “The Cultural Politics of Dislocation and Relocation in the Novels of Ana Castillo.” MELUS 23.1 (1998): 81-97-

Maufort, Marc. “In Search of Aztlan: Cherríe Moraga’s Chicana Dramaturgies.”Maufort 102- 119.

Howard, Phil. “La Tierra, Nuestra Madre: Land, Burial, Memory, and Chicanidad in the Dramaturgies of Alfaro, Moraga, and Sanchez-Scott.” Maufort and De Wagter 129-40.

Lawless, Cecilia. “Helena María Viramontes’ Homing Devices in Under the Feet of Jesus.” Homemaking: Women Writers and the Politics and Poetics of Home. Eds. Catherine Wiley and Fiona R. Barnes. New York: Garland, 1996.

Saldívar-Hull, Sonja. “’I Hear the Women’s Wails and I Know Them To Be My Own’: From Mujer to Collective Identities in Helena Maria Viramontes’s U.S. Third World,” 125-161.