Ethno-Racial Identity Configurations in American Literature. Cross-Cultural Encounters.

Ethno-Racial Identity Configurations in American Literature. Cross-Cultural Encounters

American Studies sophomores, Fall 2012-2013

Instructor: Dana Mihăilescu (dmihailes@yahoo.com)

This seminar investigates different stances of ethno-racial identity configurations and cross-cultural encounters in American literature throughout time, focusing on the relations between collective and individual memory and trauma, mainstream and minority tensions, as well as ethno-racial and ethical dilemmas. The seminar looks at identity as a contextually based-fluid category, the result of spaces of negotiation. By examining moments of struggle and power imbalance in the relation between mainstream and minority groups, the seminar also explores the fundamental role of literature in mourning and historical reparation. 

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Theories of identity, assimilation, ethnic writing and humanitarian reading [melting pot, 100% Americanism, cultural pluralism, multiculturalism, affiliation / post-ethnicity; transcultural autoethnography, cultural zone]

David A. Biale. “The Melting Pot and Beyond.” Best Contemporary Jewish Writing. Ed. Michael Lerner. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2001. 8-14.

Mary Louise Pratt. “Criticism in the Contact Zone.” Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation. New York: Routledge, 1992. 1-12.

Joseph R. Slaughter. “Humanitarian Reading.” Humanitarianism and Suffering. The Mobilization of Empathy. Eds. Richard Ashby Wilson and Richard D. Brown. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 88-107.

Case studies: Art Spiegelman, “The Eye-Ball”; Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture, 1993

Week 3: Ethno-racial Identity Configurations and the Work of Memory. Theoretical Considerations

Types of memory: Mieke Bal. “Introduction.” Acts of Memory. Cultural Recall in the Present. Eds. Mieke Bal, Jonathan Crewe and Leo Spitzer. Hanover: Dartmouth College University Press of New England, 1999. VII-XVII.

Postmemory and “points of memory”: Marianne Hirsch. “Surviving Images: Holocaust Photographs and the Work of Postmemory.” The Yale Journal of Criticism 14.1 (2001): 5-37;

Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer. “The Witness in the Archive: Holocaust Studies/Memory Studies.” Memory Studies 2.2 (May 2009): 151-170.

Multidirectional memory: Michael Rothberg. “Introduction: Theorizing Multidirectional Memory in a Transnational Age.” Multidirectional Memory. Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009. 1-12.

Memory and the color line: Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Negro and the Warsaw Ghetto” (1952)

Week 4: Performing Identities and Beyond: Power Fields, Norms and Ethical Openings of Acknowledged Precariousness. Theoretical considerations

Michel Foucault. “Morality and Practice of the Self.” History of Sexuality Volume 2: The Use of Pleasure. 1984. Transl. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1990. 25-32. 

Judith Butler. “Precarious Life.” Precarious Life. The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London: Verso, 2004. 128-151.

Leigh Gilmore. “”What Was I?”: Literary Witness and the Testimonial Archive.” Profession (The Modern Language Association of America 2011): 77-84.

Catherine Rottenberg. “Performing Americanness.” Performing Americanness. Hanover: Dartmouth College Press, 2008. 1-15.

Week 5: Jewishness and American Mainstream Identity Configurations: Late 19^th – early 20^th century:

Schreier, Barbara. “Becoming American: Jewish Women Immigrants 1880-1920.” History Today (March 1994): 25-31.

Anzia Yezierska. Bread Givers (1925)

Milt Gross. From Nize Baby (1926) in Is Diss a System?. A Milt Gross Comic Reader. Ed. Ari Y. Kelman. New York: New York University Press, 2010. 55-62; 67-69.

Week 6 Jewishness and American Mainstream Identity Configurations: Mid-twentieth century:

Episode from Goldbergs

Delmore Schwartz. “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities”; “America! America!”

Week 7: African Americans and Mainstream Identity Configurations [Black on Black]

Richard Wright. “Bright and Morning Star” / “Fire and Cloud” from Uncle Tom’s Children (1938)

Theoretical/Personal essay: Adrian Piper. “Passing for White, Passing for Black.” The Visual Culture Reader. Ed. N Mirzo. London: Routledge, 1998. 546-555.

Adrian Piper. “I Am the Locus no.2.” Performance Work, 1975.

Weeks 8: African Americans and Mainstream Identity Configurations [White on Black/Black on Black]

Theoretical, personal essay: Norman Podhoretz. “My Negro Problem–And Ours.” The New York Intellectuals Reader. Ed. Neill Jumonville. New York: Routledge, 2007. 327-340.

Bernard Malamud. “Black is My Favorite Color.” 1963. American Mix. The Minority Experience in America. Eds. Morris Freedman and Carolyn Banks. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1972. 186-193.

Aaron McGruder. The Boondocks (1999-2012) [www.gocomics.com/boondocks]

Draft of paper 1 due this week.

Week 9: Native Americans / Chicanos and Mainstream Identity Configurations

[Native] Oliver La Farge. “The Happy Indian Laughter.” 1955. American Mix. The Minority Experience in America. Eds. Morris Freedman and Carolyn Banks. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1972. 35-45. [Native Americans]

[Chicana] Sandra Cisneros. “Woman Hollering Creek.” Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

Paper 1 due this week.

Week 10: Contemporary Cross-Ethnic Configurations of Ethnic Identities: Asian-White Encounters

Screening: White Light, Black Rain. The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

John Berger. “Hiroshima.” The Sense of Sight. New York: Pantheon, 1985. 287-295.

Week 11: Contemporary Configurations of Cross-Ethnic Identities: Japanese American/Chinese American Identities

Chiori Miyagawa. “America Dreaming” (1994) in Global Foreigners. An Anthology of Plays. Eds. Carol Martin and Saviana Stanescu. New York: Seagull Books, 2006. 261-288.

Gish Jen. “Who’s Irish?”

Week 12:  Contemporary Configurations of Ethnic Identities: Eastern European- U.S. Encounters

Norman Manea. “Proust’s Tea.”  October Eight O’Clock. London: Quartet Books, 1992. 35-41.

Svetlana Boym. Hydrant Immigrants [Visual Project]. Web. <http://www.svetlanaboym.com/diaspora.htm>.

Svetlana Boym. “Immigrant Souvenirs.” The Future of Nostalgia. NY: Basic Books, 2001. 251-258; 327-336.

 [Further Reading: Norman Manea. “Romania.” On Clowns. The Dictator and the Artist. London: Faber and Faber, 1994. 3-32.]

Week 13: Contemporary Configurations of Ethnic Identities: Eastern European - U.S. Encounters

Aleksandar Hemon. The Lazarus Project (2008)     

Draft of paper 2 due this week. Paper 2 due within a week.

Requirements and grade assessment:

Students are expected to constantly take part in class discussions and to read the texts on a weekly basis. They are to make two presentations on a specific topic from the literary or theoretical texts included in the reading list and to write two 3-5 page essays, each one based on a topic of their choice from one of the literary texts in the reading list [they can either choose one or several passages and comment upon them or investigate a theme related to ethno-racial identity configurations as rendered in a literary text] (MLA citation style, 12 Times New Roman, double spacing). Plagiarism will be penalized by failure on the assignment and seminar.

Grade breakdown:

Class participation: 20% of final grade

Oral presentations: 30% of final grade

Written papers: 50% of final grade