English 262-1 - Winter, 2013

American Literature After 1914

Topic: American Regionalisms/Regional Americanisms

Class Information

Instructor: Martín, Desirée
CRN: 52960
Time: M 3:10-6:00
Location: 120 Voorhies
Breadth: Later American
Focus: ID, Interdiscipline

Description

In recent years, American cultural studies have been productively redirected away from the hegemonic national model and towards other categories such as the transnational and the regional. These are categories that might seem to be diametrically opposed to one another, as regional literatures have been historically thought of as minor or peripheral categories of a national tradition, while transnationalism is generally regarded through the lens of border-crossing, narratives of contact zones, and globalization. Yet narratives of nationalism are also structured through the transnational and regional, while the transnational and regional may be read through various forms of nationalism. In this seminar, we will examine the intersections between the national, transnational, regional, paying particular attention to the manner in which all of these terms shape each other.

Grading

Class participation
In-class presentation (@ 20 min) with written analysis (2-3 pgs)
15-20 pg. seminar paper

In addition, you will be required to submit an abstract of your final paper a few weeks before it is due so that I can provide comments and feedback (will not be graded)

Texts

Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
George Washington Gomez, Americo Paredes
Tropic of Orange, Karen Tei Yamashita
Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison