English R1A

Book List

Lee, Chang-rae: Native Speaker; Morrison, Toni: The Bluest Eye; Orange, Tommy: There, There

Other Readings and Media

Films: 

Rea Tajiri’s History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige; Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman

Other Readings: 

Texts to be included in a physical or digital course reader will possibly include: excerpts from This Bridge Called My Back (eds. Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga), Laila Lalami’s Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s The Undocumented Americans, Cathy Hong Park’s Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, and select works from Mary Rowlandson, Phyllis Wheatley, Walt Whitman, W.E. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston. 

Description

Our bodies – even if we might claim them as our own – are far from neutral, as they carry embedded signals, scripts, and even silences that reflect our unique social positions. This course explores narratives of embodiment, considering how bodies can create forms of social (il)literacy and reflect certain ideals of the nation. In particular, we will think about connecting the processes and consequences of “reading” bodies through normative paradigms of race, class, ethnicity, gender and/or sexuality to larger understandings of assimilation and belonging in the U.S. Students will compose regular reflective pieces on assigned readings and their own writing processes in addition to completing a series of connected, peer-reviewed essays that are geared towards the development of argumentative and analytical skills.