AN33004BA06
FALL SEMESTER, 2010–2011
Course Designation:
ETHNIC AND MINORITY CULTURES IN NORTH AMERICA
Title:
ETHNIC AND MINORITY VOICES IN AMERICAN EXPRESSIVENESS:
ASPECTS OF CULTURE AND IDEOLOGY
TIME & PLACE: / TIME: 12:00–13:40; Tuesday
PLACE: seminar room #119,
Main Blg, University of Debrecen
INSTRUCTOR: / Zsolt Virágos
Office: Room #118, Main Bldg of the U of D
Telephone: 489–100 (ext.: 22069)
REQUIRED TEXTS & STUDY SOURCES:
[1] Each student who has enrolled in this lecture + seminar course will be given a CD which includes all required texts, secondary sources assigned for this course of study.
[2] Virágos Zsolt–Varró Gabriella, Jim Crow örökösei: Mítosz és sztereotípia az amerikai társadalmi tudatban és kultúrában. Bpest: Eötvös, 2002.
[3] Suggested background reading:
(a) Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1993.
(b) Michael Pickering, Stereotyping: The Politics of Representation. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
(c) Peter Kivisto and Georganna, eds. Multiculturalism in the United States: Current Issues, Contemporary Voices. Thousand Oaks, CAL, Pine Forge P, 2000.
(d) Thomas Sowell, Ethnic America: A History. New York: Basic Books, 1981.
(e) Kenan Malik, The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society. Houndmills, UK, MacMillan, 1996.
(f) Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. New York: Norton, 1992.
(g) András Tarnóc, The Dynamics of American Multiculturalism: A Model-Based Study. Eger: Líceum, 2005.
COURSE GOALS:The primary objective of this course of study—offered in a lecture + seminar format—is to provide a road map for subsequent studies, ultimately for a better understanding of the culture of the United States. Despite the historical prevalence of large-scale assimilationism in U.S. society, ethnic/minority diversity, cultural pluralism, and the recent multicultural championing of difference have contributed to the vision of an increasingly more mosaic-like patterning of American society. They have also been contributory to both latent and explicit intergroup oppositions and, ultimately, to the emergence of ideological formations that tend to repudiate alternative frames of reference. This contestive terrain, while replete with conflict, contradiction and paradox, has also substantially contributed to the dynamic quality of cultural expressiveness in U.S. society. The growing presence of formerly marginalized minorities and the increasingly more effective articulation of their priorities have challenged the once dominant ideological position of Anglo-Saxonism and WASP(M) interests.
The core conceptuality attendant in this course of study will include ethnic versus minority distinctions, ethnocentrism, ethno-political considerations, ethnic identity groups, multiethnic (literature), race and racism, racial stratification, "cultural divide," "hyphenates," "hyphenated diplomacy," immigration, canon/curriculum debates, centrifugality vs. centripetality, cultural pluralism, multiculturalism (both in its MC1 and MC2 variants), othering, stereotypy, ethnic images (e.g. in the entertainment industry), racial stereotypes, tokenism, affirmative action, etc. It will also be necessary to dispel misunderstanding re oft-used ethnic identifiers such as Chicano/a or “Scotch-Irish” versus “Celtic Irish,” etc. In addition to these conceptualizations, the course will focus—within the "larger ethnicity"—on four dominant clusters of Americans.
TERM SCHEDULE & READING ASSIGNMENTS:
[1] GENERAL ORIENTATION & INTRODUCTION: THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE
[2] DOMINANT ISSUES; THE RELEVANT CONCEPTUALITY:
[E/MT1] Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Foreword to The Disuniting of America.
[E/MT2] Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., "A New Race"?
[3] CULTURAL PLURALISM VS. MULTICULTURALISM
[E/MT3] Horace M. Kallen, "Democracy Versus the Melting-Pot: A Study of American Nationality."
[E/MT4] Peter Kivisto and Georganne Rundblad, "Overview: Multicultural America in the Post-Civil Rights Era."
[4] THE NATIVE AMERICAN WORLD
[E/MT5] Diane Burns, "Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question."
[E/MT6] Diane Glancy, "The Fire Dragon and Sweat."
[5] THE HISPANIC AMERICAN PRESENCE IN U.S. CULTURE
[E/MT7] Juanita Garciagodoy, "The Wake-Up Call."
[E/MT8] Gloria Anzaldúa, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue."
[6] "AMERICA'S TENTH MAN": THE AFRICAN AMERICANS
[E/MT9] Musa Moore–Foster, "The Kaleidoscope of Self"
[E/MT10] Audre Lorde, from "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name"
[E/MT11] C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya, "The Black Church and the Twenty-First Century"
[7] ASIAN AMERICANS & PACIFIC ISLANDERS
[E/MT12] David Mura, "Living in the Global Village"
[E/MT13] Maxine Hong Kingston, "No Name Woman"
[E/MT14] Orlando P. Tizon, "Destroying a Marriage to Save a Family": Shifting Filippino American Gender Relations.
[8]
!!!MIDTERM IN-CLASS TEST!!![9] ONE MORE LOOK AT MULTICULTURALISM
[E/MT15] Ronald Takaki, "Multiculturalism: Battleground or Meeting Ground?"
[E/MT16] Nathan Glazer, "We Are All Multiculturalists Now"
[E/MT17] Z.K.V., "From Melting Pot to Boiling Pot: Observations on the American Multicultural Scene."
[10] INTER–ETHNIC CLASHES:
[E/MT18] A. Tarnóc, "Centrifugality Between Secondary Cores: Matrix 1"
[E/MT19] A. Tarnóc, "Centrifugality Between Secondary Cores: Matrix 2"
[11] STEREOTYPING, OTHERING, RACIAL SLURS (I)
[E/MT20] Michael Pickering, "The Concept of the Other"
Virágos–Varró, 59–80.
!!!(SECOND) PAPER DUE!!![12] STEREOTYPING, OTHERING, RACIAL SLURS (II)
[E/MT21] Stuart Hall, "The Spectacle of the 'Other'"
[13] AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, TOKENISM, "HYPHENATED DIPLOMACY"
[14] CONCLUSION AND WRAP-UP
INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD:Tailored to the requirements of the BA program, this will be an introductory course of study, with a lecture + seminar format, concentrating on some selected and sharply focused areas of American cultural, social and, occasionally, literary history. There will be a manageable amount of primary reading as well as writing. The lecture-plus-seminar format will make it possible to identify themes of primary interest as well as to devote class time to question periods, discussion, progress reports, and individual presentations by each student in the group "for the benefit of the whole class." Some seminars will begin with a brief overview of the relevant issues, this latter presented by the instructor, who will also moderate and assess the seminar discussions.
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATION OF COURSE WORK:
Each and every student is expected to submit a short “response paper” consisting of 2 comments and 3 questions based on the text to read for the particular seminar each time there is such a text assigned. In addition, there will be altogether one in-class test, and a short take-home paper (not longer than 4 typewritten pages. These three kinds of assignments will count 60 percent of the final grade. The remaining 40% can be earned and accumulated through active involvement in problem development and solution discussion in the individual seminars and the relevance, didactic approach and linguistic level of the oral reports.
MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS:
(1) Download this syllabus from the Institute homepage and bring a printed copy to the first seminar of the semester.
(2) "Plagiarism" will result in a failing grade for this course and additional academic discipline.
(3) It is an essential part of the course requirements to attend all class meetings. If you must miss a class because of illness or emergency, please let me know, and arrange to complete any work missed.
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