Ethnic’ and New Immigrant Writing in the United States module
Description of Module:
This course will consider the development of ‘ethnic’ and new immigrant literature in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the contemporary era. It will do so by positioning literary works within their wider historical, political and cultural context. The course will examine the dominant ideas and concerns of a range of texts from life writing to drama, poetry to short fiction and the novel by writers from a range of ethno-cultural backgrounds, including Irish, Jewish, Caribbean and Asian American.
Issues for discussion will include the claiming of the United States by new immigrant and ‘ethnic’ writers; race and ethnicity; gender, class and sexuality; labour and economic status; the uses and re-writing of American history and ‘master narratives’; the impact of US regionalism; the ways in which writers engage with the American canon; multiculturalism and the ‘culture wars’; and the growth of ‘ethnic’ American writing and Ethnic Studies as academic fields. The course will analyse a range of works from reportage and life writing to novels and short stories to plays and poetry by such writers as Jacob Riis, Frank Chin, Jamaica Kincaid, and Claudia Rankine.
Essay question
Book: Frank chin’s the year of the dragon 1974.
Question: How does this text question the idea of social mobility?
3000 words. All coursework should be DOUBLE-SIDED, double-spaced and paginated, with at least one-inch margins all around.
Description of Module:
This course will consider the development of ‘ethnic’ and new immigrant literature in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the contemporary era. It will do so by positioning literary works within their wider historical, political and cultural context. The course will examine the dominant ideas and concerns of a range of texts from life writing to drama, poetry to short fiction and the novel by writers from a range of ethno-cultural backgrounds, including Irish, Jewish, Caribbean and Asian American.
Issues for discussion will include the claiming of the United States by new immigrant and ‘ethnic’ writers; race and ethnicity; gender, class and sexuality; labour and economic status; the uses and re-writing of American history and ‘master narratives’; the impact of US regionalism; the ways in which writers engage with the American canon; multiculturalism and the ‘culture wars’; and the growth of ‘ethnic’ American writing and Ethnic Studies as academic fields. The course will analyse a range of works from reportage and life writing to novels and short stories to plays and poetry by such writers as Jacob Riis, Frank Chin, Jamaica Kincaid, and Claudia Rankine.