A photograph of a black man entering a movie theater with a segregated entrance. In this course students will tackle challenging materials to explore how ethnic writing has changed American culture. (This image is in the public domain.)
Instructor(s)
Wyn Kelley
MIT Course Number
21L.709
As Taught In
Spring 2017
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
Although this class starts by critically examining the term “ethnic” as it defines a wide range of cultural forms over time, we will focus mostly on contemporary writers. Questions to consider will include: How has ethnic writing changed American culture and renovated forms of literary expression? What are the varieties and nuances of what we might call an ethnic subjectivity? What could it mean to harbor fugitives within the self: transgressive thoughts or a “foreign” identity? And what is the future of “ethnic” literature in a global space?
Other Versions
Other OCW Versions
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