SPRING 2000
This information effective for Spring 2000.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Prof. Kirsten Silva Gruesz
Lecture TTh 10-11:45 + Required Section
This course examines contemporary Chicano prose, poetry, and film, emphasizing both the historical contexts informing these works and the emerging visual and electronic media of a future toward which they gesture. Rather than retracing a strictly chronological path in the development of this tradition, we will follow a series of interlinked themes that have concerned Mexican-American writers from 1848 through the Chicano Movement and afterward, from Texas to California and outward. We will pay particular attention to the cultural conditions under which texts are produced, disseminated, and experienced, exploring the work of independent artists through alternative media such as the World Wide Web and performance videos.
8-10 required texts of a variety of genres; exact titles TBA.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
a. Four informal journal entries, covering defined issues about Chicano/a language and expression, including work on the Internet.
b. Two short (5 p.) formal essays, either or both of which may be revisions of journal entries.
c. Required midterm.
d. Final evaluation may be taken either as an end-of-term exam or a longer term paper (with permission of the instructor or section leader).
For updated information and a sample syllabus from 1998, please consult instructor's web page: http://wwwcatsic.ucsc.edu/~kgruesz/