American Representations: Identity, Culture and the Arts
Code
722121053
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Línguas, Culturas e Literaturas Modernas, Secção de Estudos Ingleses e Norte-Americanos
Credits
10
Teacher in charge
Teresa Botelho da Silva
Weekly hours
3 letivas + 1 tutorial
Teaching language
Português e Inglês
Objectives
- Integrate an in-depth knowledge of contemporary North-American social and cultural themes with the 20th and 21st literary and visual texts at the center of the syllabus;
- Differentiate and characterize alternative theoretical approaches to collective identify constructs such as race and ethnicity and apply these critical tools to the understanding of visual and textual cultural articulations;
- Analyze the aesthetic processes used in individual creative works that problematize the themes and concerns that structure the syllabus;
- Apply the hypotheses discussed in the debates of the seminar to new autonomous research;
- Undertake, under tutorial supervision bibliographical research, relevant to critical readings of literary or visual texts;
- Organize and communicate competently the result of their autonomous research.
Prerequisites
Completed 1st cycle of studies, fluency in English, the language of instruction.
Subject matter
1-Introduction: thinking about identity
2-The conflicted discourses on race and ethnicity
3-Rethinking American identity at the dawn of the twentieth century
4-Gazing at the New Americans: photography, journalism and painting
5-Becoming American, Becoming White: The Jewish Experience
6-Looking at Race: Picturimg Blackness and Racial Stereotyping
7-The New Negro in the Harlem Renaissance I: Contexts and Debates
8-The New Negro in the Harlem Renaissance II: The Literature (N, Larsen, L. Hughes, W. Thurman)
9- Black Aesthetics in Changing Times: Art, Theater and Civil Rights
10- Reclaiming the Filmic Space: From Oscar Micheaux to Spike Lee
11-Posterizing Race? Post- Black Aesthetics (from D. Senna to K. Walker)
12-Asian Americans before the Model Minority Stereotype: Exclusion and Trauma
13-Reimagining belonging in contemporary Asian American literature (G. Jen, D. H. Hwang)
14- Post-Indian Aesthetics (S.Alexie)
15- American Culture in a Globalized World (B.Mukherje, J. Diaz)
Bibliography
Alexander, Keith, Bryant (2012) The Performative Sustainability of Race: Reflections on Black Culture and the Politics of Identity. New York: Peter Lang,
Elam, Michelle (2011) The Souls of Mixed Soul: Race, Politics and Aesthetics in the New Millenium. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Mitchell, W.J.T. (2012) Seeing Through Race. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Moynihan, Sinéad (2010) Passing into the Present: Contemporary American Fiction of Racial and Gender Passing. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Powell, Richard and Mecklenburg (ed) (2012) African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond. Washington: Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Raheja, Michelle R. (2013) Reservation Reelism: Redfacing, Visual Sovereignty and Representation of Native Americans on Film. Lincoln: University of Nebrasca Press.
Rody, Caroline (2010) The Interethnic Imagination: Roots and Passages in Contemporary Asian American Fiction. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
Teaching method
The pedagogical model adopted is that of blended-learning, where besides the introduction of contents, active participation of students is priviledged, articulatiing the independent work of each student with colaborative work, enacted in the practice of discussion groups and peer review activities.
Evaluation method
The evaluation model of this seminar contemplates two components: seminar work (50%) and final research essay (50%). The first comprises not only the active participation in the discussion groups but the writing of two short response papers and a short mid-term paper (4 pages) on an essay, a literary or filmic text studied, chosen by the student. The final research essay ( 15 to 20 pages), as a result of individual and original research, will be anteceeded by the presentation of an abstract with early bibliography , and will be supervised in individial tutorials, Regular attendance of the seminar is compulsory.