Problems in American Literature
Class Information
Instructor: Martín, Desirée
CRN: 44735
Time: T 3:10-6:00
Location: 120 Voorhies
Description
"'Ethnic'/BIPOC Life-Writing, Memoir, Personal Essay, and 'Post-Confessional' Poetry"
We will examine several contemporary works (from the last 10 years) of life-writing, memoir, "post-confessional" poetry, personal essay and creative non-fiction. Among other questions, we will examine the ways that these writers, authors, poets expand and transgress the boundaries of life-writing and memoir. At the same time, we will interrogate whether the terms often applied to this style of writing and poetry are useful or relevant, as well as how the genres of writing shape the representation of the self. We will also question how so-called "ethnic", BIPOC, and/or queer and poetry has historically been conflated with both "self" and "community," even as it has always embraced hybrid, even non-binary forms of writing and representing and/or performing the self.
Texts
Corazon, Salgado, Yesika
Brown Neon , Gutierrez, Raquel
Butterfly Boy, Gonzalez, Rigoberto
In the Dream House, Machado, Carmen Maria
Mean, Gurba, Myriam
Time is A Mother, Vuong, Ocean
Solito, Zamora, Javier
Citizen, Rankine, Claudia
Crying In H-Mart, Zauner, Michelle