M. Suarez (English)
4 HU, WRi, 4 Hours
Fall Semester FYSP 074-01 TR 11:00-12:55
Fall Semester FYSP 074-02 TR 1:30-2:45
What relationship is there between place and identity, between place and self? How does our sense of place affect who we think we are, and how we come to know ourselves and each other? This course explores how race and identity are forged, or at least negotiated, in specific settings. While we often focus on urban scenes to obtain a sense of how racial questions and tensions emerge and are worked out, the emphasis on cities has excluded other landscapes from our critical lenses. These landscapes—including the reservation, the backwoods, and the suburbs—provide alternative spaces to reconsider and refresh these issues, and we will survey these texts to discern how they represent American life. And in addressing the category of race, we will necessarily also engage with other identity categories such as gender, sexuality, and class. The reading list may include texts by Louise Erdrich, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Ishmael Reed.