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In this course we will focus on “ethnic” voices from 21st-century American literature, which can be seen to mirror complex realities for people in today’s multicultural United States of America. As literary scholar Emory Elliott maintained, “literature teaches us about dimensions of society and of ourselves in ways that often penetrate more deeply into our consciousness and our lives than other vehicles of knowledge” (2007: 3). Against this backdrop, we will read novels by contemporary ethnic American writers to study concepts such as family and identity, (in)visibility, power and privilege, and the eternal chasing of the American Dream. We will also look at notions of de/constructing whiteness beyond the black/white binaries that largely informed twentieth-century discussions of race and ethnicity in the United States. This includes an awareness of and sensibility for heterogeneity in nationality and religion, differences based on skin color, race, and ethnicity, and the complexities in identities that are bi- or multi-racial.
The focus of this class is on selected contemporary works of fiction which were published in the first decade of the 2000s, in a time when the concept of “whiteness” is ever more elusive, but possibly all the more persistent. Novels on the reading list will most likely include recent works by Danzy Senna, Gish Jen, Sherman Alexie, Matt de la Peña, and Jhumpa Lahiri (detailed information on the texts chosen will be announced soon).
Course Readings:
Students are expected to purchase the novels on the reading list (t.b.a.). Additional secondary reading material will be made available through CLIX.
Course Requirements:
Regular attendance, active participation in class, timely completion of reading and writing assignments, short oral presentation (discussion facilitation), graded term paper/final written exam (depending on your Studienordnung). |
