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This course examines the historically changing ways in which, through literature, Chicano/as have imagined themselves as a community which exists culturally both between and within the larger national entities of the U.S. and Mexico. How have Chicano/as negotiated and combined these dual national heritages? Beginning with literary responses to the Mexican War of 1846, we will study the conquered Californio population's critique of Manifest Destiny and trace the creation of a Spanish-Mexican or "criollo" heritage as a strategy for claiming the rights of American citizenship. Next, we will study texts produced after the Mexican Revolution of 1910, when large numbers of Mexican immigrants began to come to the U.S., striving to integrate themselves into the narrative of the "American Dream." Finally, we will pay special attention to the recuperation by the Chicano/a Movement of the ideals of the Mexican Revolution and the discourses of Mexican nationalism, including such ideas as mestizaje and indigenismo. We will also examine the Movement's creation of a mythical, symbolic national homeland, "Aztlán," as a form of resistance to Anglo racial and cultural hegemony. The texts of the course focus on such themes as: conquest and resistance, migration and immigration, assimilation, cultural nationalism, the effects of popular culture (telenovelas, corridos, Hollywood film), and "alternative Aztláns." ALL TEXTS ARE IN ENGLISH.
COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-21-2005
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459