Naziv kolegija: Suvremena američka etnička književnost (A, 20. st.)
Nastavnica: Dr. sc. Jelena Šesnić, izv. prof.
ECTS-bodovi: 6
Jezik: Engleski
Trajanje: ljetni semestar (2. ili 4.)
Status: Izborni
Oblik nastave: 1 sat predavanja + 2 sata seminara
Uvjeti za upis kolegija: Upisan 2. ili 4. semestar diplomskog studija
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Dr. Jelena Šesnić
Literary seminar: Contemporary U.S. Ethnic Literatures (1st/2nd Year) (A, 20th c.)
Summer 2025
Times: Mon, 10:15-11:5 (A-105), Wed, 13:15-14:00 (A-105)
E-mail: jsesnic@m.ffzg.hr
Phone: 01-4092060
Office hours: Mon, 12-13 p.m.; Thur, 10-11 a.m. (Office: B-018)
Course description: The course examines a very innovative and dynamic section of contemporary US literary/cultural production—literature produced by and about different established and newly arisen “ethnic communities” with special focus on the 1965 immigration reform, post-Cold War and post-9/11 developments, respectively. We shall address new modes of representing the ways of belonging, community and citizenship in relation to representative ethnic groups (African American, Native American), while in the second part of the course the attention will be given to the ways in which new cultural productions (both visual and textual) address concerns felt by more recent or recently more visible ethnic and racial formations (Asian American, Latino/ Chicano, the new African immigration, etc.). These textual and visual artefacts make evident some continuing concerns with nation- and community-building in the States, while they depict a new class of national subjects, a new generation of Americans.
Requirements: regular attendance and class participation (10%); written assignments (research paper (6-7 double spaced pp.) and seminar paper (10-12 double-spaced pp.)) (60%); midterm and final test (30%)
Primary texts
Novels/ graphic novels
Jesmyn Ward: Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017)
Louise Erdrich: Tracks (1988)
Gene Luen Jang: American Born Chinese (2006)
Short stories
Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter of Maladies (1999); Unaccustomed Earth (2008) (selection)
Junot Díaz: Drown (1996); This Is How You Lose Her (2012) (selection)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: short stories; selection
Films
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989); Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones, 2005)
Readings by weeks and sections (alterations possible)
Part I: An overview
Introductory remarks: approaching ethnicity; interdisciplinarity in the study of ethnicity; race theory and ethnicity school; “racial formations” (Omi and Winant); consent and descent (Sollors); symbolic (voluntary) and ascribed (compulsory) ethnicity; American ethnic/racial pentagon; fantasmatic aspects of racial identifications; long-term ethnic groups/racial formations: African Americans, American Indians
*Entries from Keywords: “Citizenship”, “Ethnicity”, “Nation”, “Naturalization”, “Race”
February/ March
Week 1: Introduction and key concepts
Week 2: African-American perspective: Lee, Do the Right Thing
Week 3: African-American perspective: Ward, Sing, Unburied Sing
Week 4: Ward: cont.
April
Week 1 Amerindians: Erdrich: Tracks
Week 2: Erdrich: cont. *Research paper submission. Mon, 7th April.*
Part II: An overview
New configurations of ethnicity: Chicanos and Latinos/Hispanics; Asian Americans; the new African immigration; post-1965 immigration and globalization; new paradigms of reading ethnic texts: diasporic and borderlands models
*The following entries from Keywords: “Border”, “Diaspora”, “Immigration”, “Mestizo”
April
Week 3: *Midterm. Mon, 14th April.* Chicanos as a sub-nation: Jones: Three Burials…
Week 4: Jones: cont.
Week 5: The Latino diaspora: Díaz: selection
May
Week 1: Asian Americans as perpetual others; Lahiri: selection.
Week 2: Asian Americans: Jang: American Born…
Week 3: Jang: cont.
Week 4: The new African diaspora; Adichie: short stories *Seminar paper submission. Mon, 26th May.*
June
Week 1: Course evaluation. *Final test. Mon, 2nd June.*
A course reader will be made available on Omega.
