ENG 287: LITERATURE OF AMERICAN WOMEN OF COLOR

This course looks at the intersection between race, ethnicity, and gender in American literarure by examining narratives by African-American, Asian-American, Chcana/Latina, and Native American women. While each author represents her ties to her ethnic community differently, we'll look at overlapping concerns between cultures such as the negotiation of the roles of mother, wife, lover, and daughter, family relationships, class position, the construction of sexuality and consequences of sexual transgression, the formation of a collective ethnic or racial consciousness, and concepts of nationalism and Americanization.