RACE AND SEXUALITY IN AMERICAN LITERATURE

ASIANAM/ENGL 462

Topics will vary. All topics will emphasize the following learning outcomes: awareness of history's impact on the present, ability to recognize and question assumptions, development of critical thinking skills, awareness of relations between self and others, and effective participation in a multicultural society.

ENGL/GEN&WS 248

American literature by and about women, written by authors from ethnic groups.

ASIANAM/ENGL/GEN&WS 464

Major texts by Asian American women writers.

ASIANAM/GEN&WS 321

Examines the different ways feminist and queer Asian Americans have used cultural production to speak up about issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, identity, diaspora, nation, justice, art, and activism. Asian American feminist and queer critiques can bring to light the ways that structures of domination uphold and further perpetuate Asian American marginalization within the U.S. Examines Asian American racialized, gendered, and sexualized images and stereotypes, as well as the daily lives and experiences of Asian American women and queer folks. Engages with scholarly articles, novels, memoirs, documentaries, and narrative films authored by and/or focusing on feminist and queer Asian Americans. Explores how systemic ideologies are reflected, challenged, and deconstructed in Asian American feminist and queer cultural productions.

ENGL/GEN&WS 401

Uses writing in many forms and genres to help students explore how race, gender, and sexuality intersect with language and inform textual experiences. From marriage licenses, passports, and don't ask, don't tell policies to literacy requirements and gag rules, written texts have played major roles in enforcing expectations about race and sex in the United States. At the same time, anti-slavery petitions, letters to the editor, wheat-pasted posters, and hashtag activism all also harness the power of writing to challenge and revise those expectations. In light of that active textual production and negotiation, this class traces public debates and daily experiences where people write or talk about race and sex in order to make a difference. Ultimately, the class takes on the power of words to break bones and heal wounds. Through reading and writing informed by scholarship in writing studies and rhetoric, students in this class will examine historical and contemporary interconnections among race, sexuality, gender, and texts in the United States, developing analytical tools for understanding how language works on and in their world.