Summer 2005

AMS S315 • German-Texans: The Immigrant Experience-W

Course Description

Using German-Texans as a case study, we will explore the immigrant experience in the United States. Germans began emigrating to America in the mid-nineteenth century and their continued presence in Central Texas is hard to overlook (we need only think, for example, of Wurstfest in New Braunfels). We will look at the motivations for emigration and the realities of life as a person leaving the Old World for the New. What are the linguistic and cultural consequences of immigration? What effect do national policies have on immigrants and their languages? What is the relationship between language and identity? Why do so many US citizens describe themselves in hyphenated terms if their parents and even grandparents were born here? Is this country a melting pot, and more importantly, should it be one?

Texts

Schmid, C.L. (2001): The Politics of Language. Conflict, Identity, and Cultural Pluralism in Comparative Perspective. Oxford University Press. Other texts available on reserves.

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