ENGL 846 - Making Americans:Ethnicity in American Literature

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

From the moment Crevecoeur recorded his impressions of "the American, this new man" in 1782, people within and outside the United States have continued his effort to define what it means to be an American. Over the course of this country's history, Americanidentity has been shaped by complex racial, ethnic, and social tensions and interactions. This course will treat ethnic American literature of the 20th century as a series of engagements with ideas of nation and belonging. We will look at these texts as attempts by Americans-newly arrived immigrants as well as Native and African Americans, the earliest of the United States' marginalized people-to carve out space for themselves within normative ideas of American nationhood while attempting to preserve their cultural pasts. Course texts may include Abraham Cahan's The Rise of David Levinsky, John Okada's No-No Boy, Paule Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones, Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Fistfight in Heaven, and Julia Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents 1.00 units, Seminar

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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