Dr. Benay Blend

Minority Literature

Spring l994


Course objective:
This course is a survey of minority literature, featuring African-, Asian-, Native-American and Chicano(a) writers. Themes that will be covered include: cultural identifications, celebrations and rituals, the role of the oral tradition and its transmission and transformation in written works, stylistic innovations, the use of language, writers as individuals and as members of a community. The student should gain a familiar- ity with the group of writers and representative works, develop critical understandings of the literature and its relation to a particularized American experience, and increase his/her skill in reading literature and writing about it.

Texts:
Terry McMillan, editor, Breaking Ice
Ernest Gains, A Gathering of Old Men
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Louise Erdrich, Tracks
Lydia Minatoya, Talking to High Monks in the Snow
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Jessica Hagedorn, editor, Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction.
Barbara Rice and Sandra Mano, editors, American Mosaic: Multicultural Readings in Context.
D. Soyini Madison, editor, The Women That I Am: The Literature of Contemporary Women of Color.

Oral Reports:
Thirty minutes of class, every other Friday, will be devoted to oral reports, presented by three students, either singly or as a panel. Choose one of the following:
1. Explore another literary work related to one of the books assigned
2. Examine another work in this area by an assigned author In either case, students should summarize the book; describe historical and/ or social-economic background of the situation dealt with in the text; give a brief biographical sketch of the author; be prepared to answer questions from the class. Each oral report should be accompanied by a one-page written summary of the material, due on the same day as the verbal presentation.

Evaluation of Grades:
There will be two major exams, a final exam, plus two take-home papers.

This page was prepared by Audrey Mickahail at the Center for Electronic Projects in American Culture Studies (CEPACS), Georgetown University.


CEPACS
Randy Bass, Director