Multiethnic American Literatures

Starting from the analysis of US multicultural and immigration historical past and present, the course in US Multiethnic Literatures will focus on the reading and the discussion of selected works (novels, short stories, poetry, drama, oral literature) and on the way these texts reflect and problematize the African American, Asian American, Latinx and Native American experiences. The course will examine how ethnic writing both resists and enables integration into the American mainstream, and how the works of selected authors negotiate racial, cultural and national belonging across several conceptual and "material" borders.

The course in Multiethnic American Literatures will focus on key concepts and theories on race, ethnicity, and de-colonization, aiming at offering students a basis in the broad, interdisciplinary field of comparative ethnic studies. The course satisfies the requirements for a curriculum in American Language and American Literatures and Culture.

Through the close reading of essays and articles proposed from time to time, the students of US Multiethnic Literatures will deepen their English comprehension and textual analysis abilities.

Mid-term  tests  will allow the students to confront their own composing processes, to broaden their critical analysis capabilities and to stimulate a research-based writing activity.

Knowledge and Understanding: The course in US Multiethnic Literatures  will allow students to gain an adequate knowledge of contemporary Anglo-American literary and cultural texts addressing multicultural, global and cross-border contexts.

Applying Knowledge and Understanding: through lectures and guided readings, students will be able to approach the texts by combining their literary and linguistic knowledge with histrical anc cultural contexts.

Making Judgement: thanks to class readings and discussion students will be able to independently apply their skills and critical knowledge to a variety of textual genres, from critical and theoretical essays to interviews and articles, from novels to short stories and drama scripts .

Communication Skills: approaching the texts in their original form, students will be able to convey effectively what they have learned during the course and its side-activities.

Learning Skills: students will develop autonomous learning skills through class and autonomous reading and writing work. Being able to write short articles/essays/critical reviews students will improve their approach to processing reading and study material, and this will be a useful skill in their future jobs.

Frontal lessons and inclass discussions. Attending students will be required an active, autonomous and creative participation to the course. They will be guided through close reading and active reading sessions, analyses of several theoretical and critical approaches. A comparative, contrapuntal text approach will be elicited, also through several activities ( i.e. writing/Q&A sessions, questionnaires).

No particular prerequisites. Students with good comprehension and reading skills of literary and critical-theoretical anglophone texts, and a fair knowledge of world and US literary history will be certainly advantaged.

Attendance is not mandatory but strongly encouraged.

The course program will be articulated into two main modules, wherein US multiethnic literary works will be read, analyzed and discussed vis à vis theoretical and critical selections, and along with a historical overwiew of the immigrant experiences in the USA.
1. "Ethnicity/ Race. Migration/Nation". The debates on ethnicity, race, nationality; historical and demographic overview of several immigrant and ethnic communities in the USA; US immigration policies across time

2. "Analyzing literary forms: issues". Ethnic identities and narrations; US and World Literature; literary canons and aesthetics; postcolonility and transnationalism; post 9/11 narratives.

Sara Antonelli, et al., extracts: La Babele Americana. Lingue e Identità negli Stati Uniti ad Oggi. Donzelli Editore, Roma, 2005. "Il Black English", pp. 135-200; "Enclave/In Chiave: il bilinguiso spagnolo-inglese," pp. 201-243. 

Vincenzo Bavaro, extracts:“Razza e capitale: Il valore della differenza.” pp.11-60;"Harlem Reinassance."pp.67-119. "manufacturing Zora." pp.120-170.  “Il dibattito asiaticoamericano.” 171-198. Una storia etnica? Capitale Culturale e performance etnica nella letteratura degli Stati Uniti. Napoli: La scuola di Pitagora, 2013.

Werner Sollor. The Invention of Ethnicity. pp. IX-XX. NewYork/London. Oxford UP. 1989.

Donatella Izzo. “Estetica etnica: modernismo asiaticoamericano”. Ácoma 1 n.s., inverno 2011: pp. 109-124.

David Palumbo Liu: The Ethnic Canon. Histories, Institutions, and Interventions. pp. 1-28. Minneapolis. Minnesota UP, 1995.

Shaun Tan, The Arrival, London ; Sydney: Hodder Children's Books, 2007

Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera. The New Mestiza. San Francisco : Aunt Lute Books, 1987. Dove mi trovo.

Sherman Alexie, Ten Little Indians. New York, NY Grove Press, 2022 ed..(2004).

Mohsin Hamid, Exit West. Philadelphia: New York: Riverhead Books, 2017.

Zora Neale Hurston, selections : “Sweat,” “How It Feels to be Colored Me,", “Characteristics of Negro Expression.” from Z.N. Hurston et al., I Love Myself When I Am Laughing ...[...]: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader , 2020.

Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs Of A Girlhood Among Ghosts. New York : Vintage International, 1989, 1976.

Jhumpa Lahiri, selections: The Interpreter of Maladies. New York:Houghton Mifflin, 1999; Unaccustomed Earth. New York:Houghton Mifflin, 2008.

Further reading and study material will be provided during the course and uploaded on  STUDIUM  and Teams digital platforms.

https://studium.unict.it/dokeos/2022/

A written test with open-ended questions and translation exercises. It will be followed by a short oral interview to confirm or consolidate the final grade.

Content  and critical proficiency; linguistic accuracy; lexical skills; argumentative skills will be taken into account for the final assessment, along with the capabilty to actively read, synthesize and engage with the originl texts.