Department of English

The course will examine the ongoing relationship between Cultural Studies and Ethnic Studies, with a primary emphasis on Chicano Studies.  Much work in contemporary Ethnic Literary Studies deploys models borrowed from cultural studies.  We will explore the ways in which ethnic studies has been both influenced by and reconstituted these models.  Some critics, such as Jose David Saldivar, have argued that cultural studies models fail to account for the complexity and dynamic nature of cultural formation within ethnic groups.  Moreover, work by feminist writers and scholars have challenged a cultural studies discourse that focuses solely on ethnicity.  We will thus read certain important cultural studies texts by such scholars as Stuart Hall along with critical texts by Chicano/African-American, and post-colonialist writers.  Although our primary focus will be on critical and theoretical texts, we will read some literary works as well.