Estudios Norteamericanos (Conjunto con UAH)

Máster. Curso 2023/2024.

MULTICULTURALISMO:EXPRESIONES CULTURALES ÉTNICAS ESTADOUNIDENSES - 608560

Curso Académico 2023-24

Datos Generales

SINOPSIS

COMPETENCIAS

Generales
1. To show independent and critical attitudes towards the analysis of American literary texts, cultural institutions and art works.
2. To appreciate the role literature and art plays in national identity building or as a site of resistance to the dominant social and political hegemony.
3. To develop critical skills and the capacity to synthesize and interpret information.
4. To be able to work with different bibliographical, both hard and electronic, sources effectively.
5. To be able to defend literary/cultural opinions in English, orally and in writing, through analysis and argumentation.
6. To display greater understanding and tolerance to individual and collective differences.
7. To enhance teamwork and the capacity of autonomous learning.
Específicas
1. To be able to examine and comment on the development of literary writing and artistic works in America, from the first examples of multiculturalism to the present.
2. To be able to explore the social, cultural, and historical issues underlying the different literary /artistic movements and works, as well as cultural institutions.
3. To be able to examine the connections between the artists’ and writers’ purpose, themes and audience expectations.
4. To develop personal and critical opinions related to the different topics discussed in the course.
5. To be able to explore and analyze the technical, rhetorical and linguistic as well as literary, cultural, aesthetic and historical topics related to examples of American literary multiculturalism.
6. To acquire the specific terminology associated to the literary, cultural and visual analysis of the given texts.
7. To analyze, understand and discuss the selected art works, readings, photographs, etc. in detail.
8. To be able to develop consistent arguments and defend them through the writing of short essays in English at C1 level.

ACTIVIDADES DOCENTES

Clases teóricas
45 hours class lectures, seminars, individual tutoring
Clases prácticas
20%
Exposiciones
20%
Otras actividades
Student work:
105 hours There is no substitute for viewing, reading and individual reflection in a humanities class, so students must be prepared to read / to watch extensively. The class will be based on the format of a participative seminar; therefore, students must prepare all readings/viewing/activities prior to the class and be ready to discuss them in depth in class. Each session will have a set of activities to encourage students’ reflecting on the text/artifact.
Team or individual work towards several short class presentations and short response papers on specific course primary sources.
TOTAL
150 hours

Presenciales

2

No presenciales

4

Semestre

2

Breve descriptor:

This course provides an overview of recent artistic, cultural and literary production in English/Spanish by US authors of ethnic descent, whose communities have been historically affected by traumatic realities and conflicts related to migration, racism and violence. The lessons will be divided into sessions dedicated to the theory on multiculturalism and to the artistic traditions of several ethnic groups, as well as to the analysis in of the assigned cultural artifacts, cultural practices and/or literary texts (museums, films, visual arts, photography, quilts, political activism, memory and commemoration, literature, essays, music, and others). Among the topics addressed in the selection of art works/readings and cultural realities are the experience of immigration and slavery, the preservation and representation of memory, the concept of “the American dream”, the intersection of ethnic/gender/class in individual identity and communal sense of belonging, various forms of discrimination (based on categories such as language, race, class, gender, religion or sexuality), the aesthetic and ideological demands of mainstream artistic canons and the achievements in experimentation with new forms, or the persecution or genocide suffered by their community at present or in the past. 
The assignments for this course will mostly focus on three examples of current multicultural realities:• The African American neo-slave narrative genre in film, music, photography, museums, the visual arts and literature; 
The second and third generation narratives of the Holocaust and the discourse of Holocaust commemoration in the arts, film, literature, monuments and museums; 
The experience of immigration in recent Chicano poetry, auto-fiction, documentary and visual arts.
Should there be a forced confinement due to pandemic, classes will be adapted to continue virtually.
 
 

Requisitos

Los generales de admisión al máster

Contenido

- Introduction to the course.
- What is multiculturalism? American literature and multicultural artists/writers. Selection of theoretical readings. Class discussion: Multiculturalism and intersectionality. Ted talk on “Intersectionality”. (1 week)Multiculturalism and the neo-slave narrative. Overview of the institution of slavery and slave narratives. Selection of chapters from Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents and Frederick Douglass, Narrative.“This is America” (2018) by Childish Gambino.The neo slave narrative: films, fiction, visual art. Nona Faustine (photography). Dread Scott (performance, installations). “Everyday Use” (1973) by Alice Walker (short story). Two musical videos
- BLM, Black Lives Matter#. Ben & Jerry’s BLM campaign. 12 Years a Slave (2013) by Steve McQueen (film). Hand in personal response on a text / artwork of your choice
- Dutchman (1964) by LeRoi Jones (play). Marcus Wicker (poetry). Musical videos. Individual oral presentations of neo-slavery films.
Slavery, memory, remembrance & its representation (museums, archives, monuments, memorials, etc.). Lucille Clifton, selection of poems. Between the World and Me (2015) by Ta Neishi Coates (personal narrative-essay, selection of texts). Selection of African American visual arts and daily objects. An American Marriage (2018) by Tayari Jones (novel). Individual oral presentations of an Afro-American artist’s work.
- The Jewish-American literary tradition and the Holocaust. The Complete Maus (1991) by Art Spiegelman (graphic novel) / Landscapes of Memory. A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered (2003) by Ruth Klüger (memoir). USHMM, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://www.ushmm.org/. After Such Knowledge (2004) by Eva Hoffman (personal narrative. First section). Theory: The Americanization of the Holocaust: films, monuments, museums, commemoration. Denial (2016) by Mick Jackson (American-Brit film). Everything Is Illuminated (2003) by Jonathan Saffran Foer (novel) + film version (2006). Individual oral presentations of Holocaust monuments in the US / Holocaust film. Theory: Chicanx, Latinx and immigration politics. Terminology. El Norte (1983) by Gregory Nava (film). Work on this website https://libguides.ollusa.edu/c.php?g=296664&p=1979535. Theory: Chicana feminisms. Dolores (2018) by Peter Bratt and Carlos Santana (film). Discussion of Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) by Gloria Anzaldúa. Hand in personal response Dolores. 
- Theory:  Chicano art/ivism. A reflection on murals and border art. Chicano poetry and librotraficantes: Juan Felipe Herrera and Lorna Dee Cervantes. Chicana muralists: Judithe Hernandez. Selection of poems for class discussion. Hand in personal response to Borderlands.
- Oral presentations of a piece of Chicanx art, museum, website, literature or film
- Conclusions for a multicultural literary canon in the class.

Evaluación

This subject adopts continuous assessment, which will be conducted through the following three categories:

• Written assignments and quizzes ……..,…. 40 % final grade
• Oral presentations …………………………….. 40 % final grade
• Active and meaningful class participation …., 20 % final grade

Final evaluation is reserved for students who are unable to attend lessons and are given permission by the academic authority. It will consist of a written and oral exam (to be recorded) on the subject content and the submission of all the exercises (presentations, short response papers, reading questions) set for each week in the term. These written activities will be sent via e-mail on the exam day.

Students should become acquainted with the document that regulates academic integrity at the UAH, “Código ético de buenas prácticas en la investigación (Aprobado por el Consejo de Gobierno de la Universidad de Alcalá, el 31 de octubre de 2019”).

Bibliografía

Please, note that some of the texts in this bibliography are intended to provide a very general introduction to American literature for students who have never studied or read it before at university level. A more detailed and specific bibliography on the authors and primary sources listed for class discussion will be provided at the beginning of the course.


Doneson, Judith E. (2002) The Holocaust in American Film. Syracuse: Syracuse UP.

Eagleton, Terry (2013) How to Read Literature. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Elliot, Emory ed. (1991) The Columbia History of the American Novel. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hurtado, Aída (2020) Intersectional Chicana Feminisms: Sitios y Lenguas. University of Arizona Press.

Rosenfeld, Alvin H. (2011) The End of the Holocaust. Bloomington: Indiana UP.

Gibb, Alan (2014) Contemporary American Trauma Narratives. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

González, Jennifer A. et al. eds. (2019) Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology. Duke UP.

Godfrey, Mark and Zoé Whitley, eds. (2017) Soul of a Nation. Art in the Age of Black Power. London: Tate.

Hart, James D. (1995) The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford: O.U.P.

Kurin, Richard (2013) The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects. New York: The Penguin Press.

Lauter, Paul, ed. (2002) The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Olick, Jeffrey K. and Daniel Levy, eds. (2011) The Collective Memory Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Onega, Susana and Jean-Michel Ganteau, eds. (2014) Contemporary Trauma Narratives: Liminality and the Ethics of Form. Abingdon: Routledge

Rothberg, Michael (2009) Multidirectional Memory. Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization. Stanford University Press.

Sollors, Werner and Greil Marcus, eds. (2012) A New Literary History of America. Harvard University Press Reference Library.

Otra información relevante

La información de esta ficha no sustituye al programa de la asignatura, que es el documento donde se concretarán actividades, material, lecturas y contenido temático.

Durante la primera semana de clase presencial dicho programa se entregará en el aula, y quedará asimismo disponible en el campus virtual de la asignatura.

Estructura

MódulosMaterias
No existen datos de módulos o materias para esta asignatura.

Grupos

Clases teóricas y/o prácticas
GrupoPeriodosHorariosAulaProfesor
Grupo T22/01/2024 - 08/05/2024JUEVES 15:00 - 18:00-LAURA DE LA PARRA FERNANDEZ