New Voices: Experimental Genres, History and Fantasy in American Cultures

This course was designed to fulfill the American Cultures Requirement in U.C. Berkeley. It has an accelarated reading schedule, because of the wide scope of the topic, but all the books were interesting and exciting. The class was conducted as part lecture and part discussion, while students worked on Creative Group Projects and Presentations through the semester.

Course Description
Texts and Requirements
Semester Schedule

Course Description

New Voices: Experimental Genres, History and Fantasy in American Cultures

In this class we will discuss the work of contemporary writers and artists, whose formal experiments address questions of ethnicity, history and the past. These texts rework traditions of literary history and legacies of ethnic representation, in order to offer visions for possible futures.

Starting with texts written in the 70's, we will review materials in a variety of genres and media, including science fiction, theater, comics and film, in order to explore the relation between experimental discourse and the representation of identity. We will also discuss how writers have engaged contemporary political issues in marginalized genres (science fiction, the graphic novel) or through the experimental use of traditional genres (the novel or the documentary film).

These experimentations attempt to represent historical, personal or group experience in ways that are both "accurate" and innovative, both "authentic" and "fantastic." As these writers, artists and filmmakers respond to problems of literary history, contemporary politics, and the complexities of ethnic identity, they question assumptions about what is "mainstream" both in content and in form.

New Voices: Experimental Genres, History and Fantasy in American Cultures

Texts

Sherman Alexie, Reservation Blues (1995)
Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands= La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987)
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1996)
Ana Castillo, So far From God (1993)
Samuel Delany, Trouble on Triton (1976)
D.H. Hwang, FOB (1979) and 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (1988)
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (1975)
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977)
Art Spiegelman, Maus, Volumes I and II

Films

Kathryn Bigelow, Strange Days (1995)
Isaac Julien, Looking for Langston (1989)
Trinh T. Minh-ha, Surname Viet, Given Name Nam (1989)
Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit (1981)

Course Requirements

class presence and participation
three short response papers (2-3 pages) on class readings or films
one midterm paper (5-7 pages)
one creative project or group presentation
a final research paper on a comparative topic (6-8 pages)

New Voices: Experimental Genres, History and Fantasy in American Cultures

Semester Schedule

Introduction: American Identities and Genre Experimentation

Week 1:
Howard Cruse "Stuck Rubber Baby"

Week 2:
Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale vol. I and II
Short Essay Due (2 pages)

Week 3:
Ray Bradbury, "Way in the Middle of the Air"
James Tiptree Jr. "The Women Men Don't See"
Derrick Bell "The Afrolandica Awakening" and "The Space Traders"
Michael Omi & Howard Winant "Paradigms of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Nation"
Luis Valdez Zoot Suit (film)

Language, Naming and Complex Identities

Week 4:
Gloria Anzaldua Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza
Lourdes Torres "The Construction of the Self in U.S. Latina Autobiographies"

Week 5:
Ralph Ellison "Hidden Name and Complex Fate"
Mario T. Garcia "Border Culture"
Gilbert Hernandez "Heartbreak Soup"
Octavia Butler "Bloodchild"

Week 6:
Leslie Marmon Silko Ceremony James W. Lowen "Red Eyes" Midterm Paper Due (5-7 pages)

Assimilation/ Searching

Week 7:
Thomas Rivera "And The Earth Did Not Swallow Him"
William Anthony Neniccio "Autobiographies at La Frontera: The Quest for Mexican American Narrative"
Short Essay Due (2 pages)

Week 8:
David Henry Hwang FOB and 1000 Airplanes on the Roof
Leo R. Chavez "Separation"

Week 9:
Samuel R. Delany Trouble on Triton
Roland Barthes "Faraway" "The Unknown Language" "Without Words"

Week 10:
Spring Break **** No Classes

Week 11:
Delany
Trinh T. Minh-ha Surname Viet, Given Name Nam (film)

Week 12:
Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower Ronald Takaki "Reflections on Racial Patterns in America"

Week 13:
Butler
Kathryn Bigelow Strange Days (film)
Donna Haraway "A Cyborg Manifesto"
Short Essay Due (2 pages)

Week 14:
Ana Castillo So Far From God
Caren Caplan "Deterritorializations"
Isaac Julien Looking for Langston (film)

Week 15:
Sherman Alexie Reservation Blues
Mary Crow Dog "Drinking and Fighting" and "We AIM Not To Please"

Week 16:
Wrap-up and Group Presentations/ Creative Projects

Tuesday May 12, Final Paper Due (6-8 pages)

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