Kommentar |
A. Robert Lee observes: “How can America, or its literature, from puritans to postmoderns, in any accurate sense ever have been thought other than multicultural?” (Lee, 2003:1). With regard to community and belonging, American multiculturalism articulates the politics of positioning – here naming disciplines are significant in the delimitation and description of identity. This seminar considers names and naming practices in diverse texts from different cultural contexts; these are important for identity constructions and questions of self- definition and belonging. The texts to be considered here can be read as arising from and reflecting on America’s larger political debates on multiculturalism and ethnicities. Presentations will be a required part of the class. A reader will be made available. Students are required to have acquired the novels and read them before the class takes place. Texts: • Jhumpa Lahiri. The Namesake. Mariner Books. 2004. [Film Adaption: Mira Nair. 2008] • Lawrence Hill. Someone Knows My Name. W.W. Norton & Company. 2008. • Scott Momaday. The Names: A Memoir. University of Arizona Press. 1987. • Percival Everett. I am Not Sidney Poitier. Grey Wolf Press. 2009. |