WGSS 47.01 Immigrant Women Writing in America
In responding to the obstacles facing America's immigrants -- problems of xenophobia, dislocation, split identity, family disunity and claustrophobia, culture shock, language barriers, economic marginality, and racial and national oppression -- women often assume special burdens and find themselves having to invent new roles. They often bring powerful bicultural perspectives to their tasks of survival and opportunity seeking, however, and are increasingly active in struggles for cultural expression and social and economic justice. We will examine the different conditions for women in a variety of immigrant groups in America, reading in several histories, anthologies of feminist criticism, interdisciplinary surveys, and relevant texts in critical theory, and on the words, in autobiography, poetry, and fiction, of foreign-born women writers. We will read such works as Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior; Bharati Mukerjee's Darkness; Marilyn Chin's The Phoenix Gone; Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy; and Shelly Oria's New York 1, Tel Aviv 0.
Cross Listed Courses
ENGL 53.10