Hellen Lee
English Department

 

ENGL 180H American Identities

By watching films, listening to music, studying history, learning from guest speakers, and reading fiction, we will examine how migration and immigration shape changing racial and gender ideologies informing the concept of an “American Identity” at key moments of domestic crises and international conflicts in U.S. history. We will re-examine essentialist notions of identity formation and take a comparative approach focusing on the processes by which identities are shaped with and against other ethnic, racial, national, gender groups in the struggles for economic, social, and political dominance. Our aim will be to become familiar with the complexities and contradictions embedded in the concept of American Identities represented in a variety of literary and cultural texts.