AFRAMER 123 - Slaps and Embraces: Minority Literature in the Americas

Institution:

Harvard University

Subject:

Description:

Traditional rhetoric assumes that orator and public, writer and reader, share the same cultural references and values. Therefore a master of language arts assumes a cultural continuity with his or her audience. But minority writers, by definition, cannot assume continuity with the majority of readers and therefore the tropes, strategies, and styles developed in "mixed company" are significantly different from those we have learned to expect. These stylistic differences, which mark cultural distances, make ethnically marked writing distinctive. It often teases readers with promises of intimate unveiling and then turns the page onto a freshly felt distance. As Toni Morrison says about her own writing, "it slaps and embraces". Primary texts include: Royal Commentaries by el Inca Garcilaso; Song of Myself by Walt Whitman; Beloved by Toni Morrison; Cecilia Valdes by Cirilo Villaverde; Sab by Getrudis Gomez de Avellaneda; Autobiography of a Slave by Juan Francisco Manzano; Riboberta Menchu; and The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.harvard.edu

Phone Number:

(617) 495-1000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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