2014-2015 Academic Catalog

May 07, 2024

2014-2015 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

CMLT 150 - Journeys with Hyphenated Americans: Emerging Identities, Evolving Cultures

The American “melting pot,” once a national myth, has now become a cultural cliché often derided by contemporary ethnic communities. Forged largely around the migration of Europeans to the United States in the early 20th century, that fiction of national identity has since been rewritten and transformed through works that reflect the experiences of men and women who have come from non-European backgrounds: Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans. This seminar traces some of the shifts in these stories of migration in both fiction and film, in works ranging from the uplifting autobiographies of European immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century to Robert Rodriguez’s irreverent Chicano movie, Spy Kids, at the century’s end. In debunking the melting pot, writers and filmmakers have produced a highly imaginative and yet subversive counter-mythology that forces us to reconsider many of the commonplaces about American cultural identity. Fulfills the Verbal Expressions requirement. You must have been placed at the Verbal Expression level to select this seminar.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically