ENGL 257 A: Asian-American Literature

In line with both the “model minority” and “forever foreign” racial tropes, Asian Americans are often viewed as newcomers to American shores despite their often invisible five-century history.  Similarly, recent Asian American discussions of emasculation and fetishization, solidarity with Black communities, intergenerational trauma, and self-determination have been treated as though they are happening for the first time - even though they have been central to Asian American communities.  Against these prevailing attitudes, this course will introduce readers to central works from across the two centuries of Asian American literatures and cultural thought.  Along the way, we will address how authors have used literary texts to reflect, theorize, and negotiate the historical conditions of their existence, as well as how they have used writing to imagine new relationships to formal and cultural citizenship, racism and racialization, gender norms, class and socioeconomic status, and the expansion of U.S. empire during the “American Century.”  The course will be conducted asynchronously with optional synchronous elements; you will be tasked with reading between 40 and 100 pages per week and participating in weekly discussions; and major assignments will include a take-home midterm and final examination.