ENGL 3377 Multicultural Literature: U.S. Ethnic Women’s Literature

INSTRUCTOR CONTACT

Professor Kelsey

ABOUT THE COURSE

This course considers a range of literature written by US ethnic women writers, especially contemporary works.  We begin by reading 19^th century and early 20^th century works by Sojourner Truth, Zitkala-Sa, Sui Sin Far, Maria Ruiz de Burton, Frances Harper, and others, in order to provide a grounding in issues germane to ethnic women’s experiences and to establish strategies for interpretation that we will carry throughout the semester.  From there, we move to contemporary works by Joy Harjo, Maxine Hong Kingston, Alice Walker, Khadijah Queen, Sandra Cisneros, Toni Morrison, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Linda Hogan, Cherríe Moraga, and others.  We will seek to contextualize each work in its historic moment and cultural milieu, and we will equally engage close reading techniques in our interpretation of these works.  The class is writing intensive, requiring a range of written responses in class discussion and three formal critical analysis papers.  All formal papers will undergo peer review and multiple revisions; students will refine their writing skills and learn to become more attentive readers of their peers’ prose.