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The Short Story: Contemporary Afro-American & Chicano Short Fiction

ENGL 103.001
instructor(s):
TR 12-1:30

This course will provide an introduction to current modes of
literary interpretation by focusing on the contemporary short
fiction of African-Americans and Chicanos/as.  We will emphasize
learning to read within the historical and cultural contexts in
which the literature is written rather than from a strictly
personal point of view.  We will also stress the importance of
taking critically persuasive positions on the literature based on
a knowledge of and appreciation for these contexts.  Given the
comparative nature of the course, instead of examining each
ethnic tradition separately, we will explore the ways in which
they overlap as well as diverge.  This course will thus consider
such topics as the effects of diaspora, or migration, and
cultural marginalization on African-American and Chicano/a
literary expression.  The course will begin by providing the
necessary historical and cultural background to study the
literature.  (NOTE: This course was formerly numbered English
74.)

fulfills requirements