552.305 (17S) Focus on Literature: American Border Fictions
Überblick
- Lehrende/r
- LV-Titel englisch Focus on Literature: American Border Fictions
- LV-Art Seminar (prüfungsimmanente LV )
- Semesterstunde/n 2.0
- ECTS-Anrechnungspunkte 6.0
- Anmeldungen 16 (25 max.)
- Organisationseinheit
- Unterrichtssprache Englisch
- LV-Beginn 01.03.2017
- eLearning zum Moodle-Kurs
-
Anmerkungen
Attendance of the first session on March 8 is MANDATORY
Zeit und Ort
LV-Beschreibung
Intendierte Lernergebnisse
Students will learn how to read American border fictions from a variety of authors and ethnic perspectives critically, historically, and contextually. They will get a better understanding of the current social and political conflicts around American immigration policies and learn how literary texts can speak to such conflicts despite or because of their fictionality. They will learn why themes like identity formation, assimilation, cultural hybridity and multiculturalism are of central importance to discourses around American border fictions and realities.
Lehrmethodik inkl. Einsatz von eLearning-Tools
Short lecture inputs, close analysis and discussion of assigned texts.
Inhalt/e
U.S. borders have always been both porous and heavily policed. This is especially true for the country’s 1,989 mile-long border with Mexico, which over the centuries has been the site of countless conflicts and crossings, both real and imagined. In this seminar, we will start out with a look at the contemporary media coverage of the Trump administration’s border wall project and the broad public resistance to its immigration policies. We will complement and complicate these readings with the first chapter of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera. Next we will turn to T.C. Boyle’s Tortilla Curtain, a novel that explores illegal immigration against a background of xenophobia, poverty, and environmental destruction. Helena Maria Viramontes’s novella Under the Feet of Jesus will help us imagine the strenuous lives of migrant workers in the orchards of California. Our last novel is Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange, a daringly postmodern text that confronts readers with a multitude of divergent voices from both sides of the border. We will then conclude the semester with Steven Soderbergh’s crime drama film Traffic, which offers a very different perspective on the US-Mexican border, and with a guest lecture by the capital mitigation specialist Patricia VanSandt, who has worked on several gang-violence related death penalty cases in the U.S. Throughout the semester, we will explore border fictions and realities and discuss how they are shaped by notions of gender, religion, nationality, and ethnic identity.
Literatur
T.C. Boyle. Tortilla Curtain. (any edition)
Maria Helena Viramontes. Under the Feet of Jesus. (any edition)
Karen Tei Yamashita. Tropic of Orange. (any edition)
All other texts will be provided by the instructor.
Prüfungsinformationen
Prüfungsmethode/n
Mid-term test
Final test
SE-paper (3,500 words)
Prüfungsinhalt/e
The two tests will cover the assigned literary texts. Free choice of topic by students for the final paper, as long as there is a focus on American literature that focuses on border and immigration issues.
Beurteilungskriterien/-maßstäbe
30% participation
30% - tests (midterm & final test)
40% - SE-paper
Beurteilungsschema
Note BenotungsschemaPosition im Curriculum
- Diplom-Lehramtsstudium Unterrichtsfach Englisch
(SKZ: 344, Version: 04W.7)
-
2.Abschnitt
-
Fach: Advanced Culture Studies
(Pflichtfach)
-
SE zu Topics in American Culture Studies (
2.0h SE / 5.0 ECTS)
- 552.305 Focus on Literature: American Border Fictions (2.0h SE / 5.0 ECTS)
-
SE zu Topics in American Culture Studies (
2.0h SE / 5.0 ECTS)
-
Fach: Advanced Culture Studies
(Pflichtfach)
-
2.Abschnitt
- Bachelorstudium Anglistik und Amerikanistik
(SKZ: 612, Version: 15W.3)
-
Fach: Fachliches Vertiefungsstudium
(Pflichtfach)
-
7.2 (b) Focus on Literature (
0.0h SE / 6.0 ECTS)
- 552.305 Focus on Literature: American Border Fictions (2.0h SE / 6.0 ECTS) Absolvierung im 4., 5. Semester empfohlen
-
7.2 (b) Focus on Literature (
0.0h SE / 6.0 ECTS)
-
Fach: Fachliches Vertiefungsstudium
(Pflichtfach)
- Bachelorstudium Anglistik und Amerikanistik
(SKZ: 612, Version: 15W.3)
-
Fach: Freie Kombination
(Wahlfach)
-
10.1 Freie Kombination (
0.0h SE / 12.0 ECTS)
- 552.305 Focus on Literature: American Border Fictions (2.0h SE / 6.0 ECTS) Absolvierung im 5., 6. Semester empfohlen
-
10.1 Freie Kombination (
0.0h SE / 12.0 ECTS)
-
Fach: Freie Kombination
(Wahlfach)
- Bachelorstudium Anglistik und Amerikanistik
(SKZ: 612, Version: 10W.3)
-
Fach: Fachliches Vertiefungsstudium
(Pflichtfach)
-
Focus on Literature (
2.0h SE / 7.0 ECTS)
- 552.305 Focus on Literature: American Border Fictions (2.0h SE / 7.0 ECTS)
-
Focus on Literature (
2.0h SE / 7.0 ECTS)
-
Fach: Fachliches Vertiefungsstudium
(Pflichtfach)
- Bachelorstudium Anglistik und Amerikanistik
(SKZ: 612, Version: 10W.3)
-
Fach: Freie Kombination
(Wahlfach)
-
Freie Kombination (
0.0h XX / 11.0 ECTS)
- 552.305 Focus on Literature: American Border Fictions (2.0h SE / 7.0 ECTS)
-
Freie Kombination (
0.0h XX / 11.0 ECTS)
-
Fach: Freie Kombination
(Wahlfach)