COLT 10.21 Coming to America
“Immigrants, we get the job done!” – thus sings the chorus in the Broadway smash-hit Hamilton. Essentially a nation of immigrants, the United States has long been considered a land of opportunity. But what does it take to succeed here? In this course, we study narratives (memoirs, novels, poems, feature and documentary films, a play, a graphic novel, and a musical) about and by those who came to this country during the last 100 years—be it eagerly, reluctantly or clandestinely—to understand processes of assimilation and acculturation. At the same time, we will examine the premises and practices of comparative literature as a discipline that has been largely shaped by immigrant scholars.