American Representations: Identity, Culture and the Arts - 1st semester

Objectives

A- 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. preencher pelo docente responsável

General characterization

Code

722121053

Credits

Responsible teacher

Teresa Botelho da Silva

Hours

Weekly - 3 letivas + 1 tutorial

Total - Available soon

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

Completed 1st cycle of studies, fluency in English, the language of instruction.

Bibliography

Alexander, Keith The Performative Sustainability of Race: Reflections on Black Culture and the Politics of Identity. New York: Peter Lang, 2012
Goyal, Yogita, The Cambridge Companion to Transnationak American Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017
Powell, Richard and Mecklenburg (ed), African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond. Washington: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2012
Raheja, Michelle R., Reservation Reelism: Redfacing, Visual Sovereignty and Representation of Native Americans on Film. Lincoln: University of Nebrasca Press. 2013
Tan, Kathy-Ann No One is Illegal: Reconfiguring Citizenship and National Identity in the North American Literary Imagination.Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2015

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 evaluaition 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) , the 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 attendence of the seminar is cumpulsory.

Subject matter

1-Introduction: thinking about identity
2-The conflicted discourses on race and ethnicity: rethinking American identity at the dawn of the twentieth century
3-Gazing at the New Americans: photography, journalism and painting
4-Becoming American, Becoming White: The Irish and Jewish experience
5-Looking at Race: Picturimg Blackness and Racial Stereotyping
6-The New Negro in the Harlem Renaissance I: Contexts and Debates
7-The New Negro in the Harlem Renaissance II: The Literature (N. Larsen, L. Hughes, W. Thurman)
8- Black Aesthetics in Changing Times: Art, Theater and Civil Rights
9- Reclaiming the Filmic Space: From Oscar Micheaux to Spike Lee
10-Posterizing Race? Post- Black Aesthetics in the 21st century
11-Asian Americans before the Model Minority Stereotype: Exclusion and Trauma
12-Reimagining belonging in contemporary Asian American literature
13- Post-Indian Aesthetics in literature and film
15- Transnational voices (Barati Mukherje, Junot Diaz, Laila Halaby)

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: