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How might a course like this be relevant for a student who has heretofore not considered the question of ethnicity? And what does Spike Lee have in common with Madonna, Sinatra, and the Mafia? All four, in one way or
another,
as do many of the texts and films in this course, deal with the representations of "Italian Americana". Our object is a "minority" culture, with a focus on ethnicity, gender, class, family, and race. This semester we
will
consider issues of gender, identity, immigration, assimilation, and stereotyping, as we attempt to determine the "place" of Italian Americans--at the margins of mainstream American culture (as outsider); as the passive
recipient
of Anglo culture; as interrogation of mainstream culture (and this means OTHER than making mafia movies, and pizza, even though both have tended to characterize--and limit--representations of Italian Americans). For
example,
students will look at how the "American Dream" has been depicted and theorized by writers and film-makers. Students will also transcribe an oral history from someone in the community, as they consider their own ethnic
identification.
Through
multidisciplinary approaches and interactive work, readings, and films (documentary and fiction), and writing, the class will also consider the pertinent questions that most border cultures of America face as they draw
from
their own experiences and to "rethink" their own subject position, alongside such topics as "ghettoizing" or stereotyping, and reductive representation.
Some of the topics will focus on: the first wave of the
marginalized
and oppressed groups that fed the mass waves of migrations from the economically depressed Italian South to New York's Lower East Side and Little Italy; the Mafia; questions of gender and generation concerning both
immigrant
men and women (and their children); sociological questions concerning immigrant life and work; and the role of education, and reading and writing, in the early Italian Americans, in comparison to other migrant groups,
and
in comparison to the more recent manifestations of cultural activity by subsequent generations. The final goal of the course will be for the class to come up to an understanding of the terms "italianita", "American",
and
ethnicity, within a multicultural and changing context. Students will also take a class trip to Ellis Island during the semester.
COURSE FORMAT: Discussion
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: NONE Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-19-2004
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459