Transamerican Literary Exchanges

In this course we read texts that challenge the disciplinary divide between U.S. American, Latin American, and U.S. Latino literature and history. We question whether Spanish texts written and published in the U.S. should be considered a part of the U.S. American canon, the Latin American canon, both or neither?  Likewise, we ask ourselves whether texts written in English by Latin American authors and published in the U.S do the same?  Ultimately, we question how these works challenge such terms as immigrant, exile, Latino and Latin American, or simply affirm them and how they fit into and/or fall outside of current paradigms for exploring the Latino/Latin American experience in the U.S.?  We will read texts by the following authors: Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Tomás Rivera, Manuel Puig,  Juan de Recacoechea, Ana Menéndez, Marie Arana, Yunot Díaz, and Patricia Engel. All reading, writing, and discussion are in English.