Race and Ethnicity in US Culture

elective courses

Classroom

The course will be devoted to cultural representations of major racial and ethnic groups in the US, including African Americans, Asian Americans, indigenous and Latinx populations. Making use of a variety of sources (literary texts, films, TV series, music videos, visual art, etc.) the course will familiarize the students with the major discourses of ethnicity and race in the US. Encompassing a historical perspective to account for the presence of the studied groups in the US, the coursework will nevertheless focus mostly on contemporary representations of various ethnic and racial groups in texts of culture. Attention will also be paid to current attempts at restricting the teaching of critical race theory at American schools and universities.

Selected issues to be covered in class:

- food as carrier of ethnicity

- indigenous populations in literary texts and TV series

- contemporary representations of slavery

- police brutality against Blacks

- generation gap in Asian American families

- the model minority

- gender in the Latinx communities

- white ethnics in American cities

- race and ethnicity in music

- race and ethnicity in visual art

Anzaluda, Gloria, ed. Making Face, Making Soul: Haciendo Caras. Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color. Aunt Lute Books, 1990.

Bayor, Ronald. The Columbia Documentary History of Race and Ethnicity in America. Columbia University Press, 2004.

Cordasco, Francesco. Dictionary of American Immigration History. The Scarecrow Press, 1990.

Ginneken, Van Jaap. Screening Difference: How Hollywood's Blockbuster Films Imagine Race, Ethnicity, and Culture. Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.

Grewal, Inderpal. Transnational America: Feminism, Diasporas, Neoliberalisms. Duke University Press, 2005.

Guibernau, Montserrat, and John Rex, eds. The Ethnicity Reader: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Migration. Polity Press, 1997.

Lee, Robert A. Multicultural American Literature: Comparative Black, Native, Latino/a, and Asian American Fictions. University Press of Mississippi, 2008.

Reed, Ishmael, ed. MultiAmerica: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace. Viking, 1997.

Turner, Sarah E., and Sarah Nielsen, eds. The Myth of Colorblindness: Race and Ethnicity in American Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Xing, Jun, and Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, eds. Reversing the Lens: Ethnicity, Race, Gender and Sexuality Through Film. University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.

Upon completion of the course, a student:

Knowledge:

- knows the major theories and terminology employed for the analysis of race and ethnicity in US culture;

- is familiar with the specificity of cultural representations of various racial and ethnic groups.

Skills:

- can take part in discussions of representations of racial and ethnic groups in texts of culture;

- is able to offer a detailed analysis of a text of culture in speech and writing with the use of terminology proper for the studied body of texts.

Competences:

- is aware of the racial and ethnic diversity of the US;

- is sensitive to the role of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class and other elements of identity for the functioning of individuals and groups within a larger society.

Course requirements:

- attendance and active participation in the classes – 20p

- four short response papers – 40p (10p each)

- final research paper – 40p

Grading scale:

0-59% - 2

60-69% - 3.0

70-74% - 3.5

75-84% - 4.0

85-89% - 4.5

90-97% - 5

98-100% - 5!