Latina/o Literature and
Literature of the Americas at the
University of Northern Colorado

Office Hours:
Mondays 12:30 - 2:00
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:15 - 4:00
And by appointment

Course Description
Detailed investigation of a specific author, period, text, or topic in literary studies, composition and rhetoric, or linguistics. Substantial research and at least one oral presentation required.

Course Objectives
This course is designed to create an intellectual and pedagogical atmosphere in which English majors will examine and interrogate a common theme or set of issues. Because this course is designed for English majors who have fulfilled their departmental requirements, each major will develop a reading and research methodology individually suited to each student's interests and particular experience of fulfilling his or her English major and university course requirements. In other words, this course is designed to present a theme or issues around and through which all students will participate idiosyncratically so that, ideally, the students will perceive both the diversity and common bonds of the discipline of English.

The common theme and set of issues around which we will develop this course is the idea of hybrid Americas. In other words, as we enter into the twenty-first century in an increasingly globalized, technologized world, we will encounter new definitions of both geopolitical alignments in general and the Americas in specific. These definitions will concern us not only in a broad context, but in a disciplinary context as well. These disciplinary contexts will be the concern of this course.

Outline of Course Content
As we proceed through this course, students will compile an annotated bibliography during the first two thirds of the course. Each overall thematic section of the course will require students to add references to their annotated bibliographies. This requirement is intended to encourage students to begin identifying and researching areas of interest early in the semester.

We will begin by constructing an overall theoretical perspective through a close reading of Mary Louise Pratt’s Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. We will examine various articulations of transculturation as a process and/or hermeneutic in which cultural contact is narrated and/or theorized. We will also examine texts and employ transculturation in our analyses of them. Based on initial perspective, students will be required to add ten references that address issues of transculturation and their individual interests/emphases to their annotated bibliography.

Next, we will examine the idea of hybrid cultures. We will begin with Garcia Canclini’s Hybrid Cultures to provide an overall theoretical perspective, and we will then move on to contemporary cultural explication and performance art that specifically interrogates the borders of America and Latin America. We will consider the economic implications of border transgression, and we will read current articles that seek to define criminality in terms of both profits and borders. As with the section above, students will be required to add ten sources that concern the issues explored in this section to their bibliography.

Our final section will examine hybrid texts. We will begin with an old, forgotten classic, In the American Grain by William Carlos Williams. As we read through this remarkable historical presentation of the Americas, we will consider the extent to which history has been the silent participant in the various theories and perspectives we have considered thus far. We will end this section and the class by examining hybrid texts of another sort. Pat Mora and Gary Soto are award winning children’s authors, and we will read two of their books that attempt to articulate a broadened notion of the Americas to young readers.

As we examine each issue, students will be required to make class presentations of their individual response to and interpolation of the issue into their fields or areas of interest. Students will be required to give a twenty-minute presentation or lead discussion at least once in two of the three sections. Students will further be required to provide relevant articles or other materials to facilitate discussion. Ideally, the annotated bibliography will provide each student with a resource base which he or she can then employ for presentations.

This class is designed to provoke discussion among our students and to strengthen and refine their abilities to clearly articulate their interests among peers. Definitions of the Americas are broad and contemporary enough for all English students to interpolate their interests into a discussion. For example, the students with the following emphases could develop their individual study along the following guidelines:

Required Texts (Available at The University Book Store and The Book Stop):
Fusco, Coco. Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas.
Garcia Canclini, Nestor. Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity.
Garza, Carmen Lomas. In My Family/En Mi Familia.
Monsivais, Carlos. Mexican Postcards.
Mora, Pat. Tomas and the Library Lady.
Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation.
Soto, Gary. Chato’s Kitchen.
Williams, William Carlos. In the American Grain. .
Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey.

Weekly Assignments:

Week 1: Transculturation
Tu 1/16 Introduction
Th 1/18 Pratt

Week 2:
Tu 1/23 Pratt
Th 1/25 Pratt

Week 3:
Tu 1/30 Pratt
Th 2/1 Pratt

Week 4:
Tu 2/6 Wilder
Th 2/8 Wilder

Week 5:
Tu 2/13 Fusco
Th 2/15 Fusco

Week 6:Hybrid Cultures
Tu 2/20 Garcia Canclini
Th 2/22 Garcia Canclini

Week 7:
Tu 2/27 Garcia Canclini
Th 3/1 Garcia Canclini

Week 8:
Tu 3/6 Monsivais
Th 3/8 Monsivais

Week 9:
Tu 3/13 Monsivais
Th 3/15 Monsivais

Week 10:
Tu 3/27 Fusco
Th 3/29 Fusco

Week 11: Hybrid Texts
Tu 4/3 Williams
Th 4/5 Williams

Week 12:
Tu 4/10 Williams
Th 4/12 Williams

Week 13:
Tu 4/17 Mora
Th 4/19 Mora

Week 14:
Tu 4/24 Garza
Th 4/26 Garza

Week 15:
Tu 5/1 Soto
Th 5/3 Soto

Final Exam:
Thursday, 5/10, 10:45-1:15

Grading Percentages:
20% Annotated Bibliography
30% (15% each) Assigned five-page essays or reaction papers covering specific readings;
40% Research project;
10% Class attendance and participation (to be determined by comments in class as indicator of whether assigned readings have, in fact, been read by individuals).

Method of Evaluation
Letter grades, A-F

Annotated Bibliography:
This assignment is not as hard as it sounds. Using MLA format, list at least ten references related to each of the first two sections as the theme intersects your particular field and/or area of interest (creative writing, pedagogy, theory, American lit., English lit., gender issues, sexuality issues, etc.). Each bibliographical entry is followed by a three or four sentence synopsis of the major points and/or argument of the article of book. The total bibliography will contain at least twenty references.

Research Paper:
Rather than a standard research paper, for this class I require that you turn in a hybrid paper on CD. In other words, you will write a paper and illustrate it with pictures (jpeg, gif, etc.), film clips (mpeg, avi, etc.), sounds (MP3), and/or whatever else you can imagine and make work. I require that the paper be turned in on a CD just to make life difficult. All of the computers at the public access clusters here at Northern Colorado have CD burners. We will discuss the technology involved in this assignment further in class. Your paper will involve research, to be sure, and I require at least ten references cited in MLA format. But the more important element of this assignment is that you experiment with the format and data capabilities and broaden your notion of what a paper can be. Use your imagination. Your grade will be determined by a combination of both execution (I will deduct one point for each grammatical, spelling, and formatting error – as usual), analytical rigor, and creativity. This last element is very important. Since we are studying borders, I invite you to make your paper another border.

Late Assignment Policy:
I will deduct ten percent of the assignment’s overall grade for every day that the assignment is late. If you miss an assignment, by all means turn in something within five days – twenty or thirty percent is certainly better than zero.

Plagiarism:
Plagiarism occurs when an individual represents someone else’s work as his or her own. If you download a paper off of an internet cite and turn it in as your own, that is plagiarism. If you copy sentences or passages written by someone else and do not attribute the source, that is plagiarism. If I suspect plagiarism, I will investigate by whatever means available, including various internet sites designed to specifically find passages copied from websites. Be advised that these internet search engines are extremely efficient. Plagiarized assignments will receive a grade of zero and will be reported to the proper authorities. Do not plagiarize.

Disability Access Center:
Students with disabilities who believe they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Access Center (970) 351-2289 as soon as possible to better ensure that accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

Presence and Participation: If you skip class, you are wasting your own time and money. I use the following scale to grade your attendance and participation:
100% – consistent contribution to class discussion
90% – frequent contribution to class discussion
80% – occasional contribution to class discussion
70% – pleasant demeanor, attentive presence
60% – napping, drooling, doodling, mild surliness
50% – reading newspaper, chatting with neighbors, growling
40% – sickness in class, bleeding on floor (bonus points for bringing and using plastic bags)
30% – dragging intestines, bones protruding through skin (bonus points for determination)
20% – death in class (internment is generally not covered in your student fees)
10% – decomposition in chair (90 bonus points for diligence, however)
0% – face, name, existence utter mystery to Professor

Que le vaya muy bien.