Dr. Fagan 3 credits

          The figure of the border refers at one moment to the constructed dividing lines between nation-states and at another to those between the linguistic, ethnic, racial, political, gender, sexual, and cultural identities of those Mexicans, Americans, Chicana/os, and Tejana/os who live there.  In this course, we will explore literature set on or near the U.S.-Mexico border written by Mexican American, Chicana/o, and Mexican authors together with historical surveys and other cultural representations of this most (in)famous border zone. Reading fictional and nonfictional accounts, we will ask how authors and texts use the border to communicate ideas about identity, about what it means to exist in the spaces between what Cuban writer José Martí calls “Our America” and the “other America.”  We will also study various film, television, and web representations of the border for evidence of the various ways they construct the border. This course will satisfy the "Identity, Diversity, Power" requirement for the English major.

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