Introduction to Ethnic North American Literature

This course introduces ethnic Canadian and U.S. literature by investigating how cultural representations of “ethnic America” are formed in relation to its social, political, and material histories. We will begin by analyzing the nested issues of labour, legality, and immigration that have shaped black, Asian, and Indigenous presence within North America. From there, we will move on to the themes of national assimilation, multiculturalism, diaspora, and empire in order to track the trajectory of ethnic Canadian and U.S. literature in the late-20th and 21st centuries. Authors include: Amiri Baraka, Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Tomson Highway, Julia Alvarez, Karen Tei Yamashita, Toni Morrison, Viet Nguyen, and Mohsin Hamid. 3 hrs. lect./disc.