Spring 2008

E 379S • Contemporary Mexican American Fiction

Course Description

Writers Rudolfo Anaya, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, Tomas Rivera, Gary Soto, and especially Sandra Cisneros helped usher Mexican American literature into the American cultural mainstream. These authors, along with notable others, introduced readers to the social and cultural politics that shape Mexican American cultural identity. Although male voices are perceived to dominate, women have been instrumental always in the shaping of contemporary Mexican American literature. This course focuses exclusively on women writers, such as Gloria Anzaldúa, Helena Maria Viramontes, and Ana Castillo, to consider the ways in which they create female subject positions in fiction to critique, resist, or revise dominant themes/tropes found in Mexican American literature.

Grading Policy

Two 3-4-page papers (20% each), 40%
One 8-10-page seminar paper, 35%
Peer Review, 10%
Reading Quizzes, 15%

Texts

Castillo, Ana. So Far From God
Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
Martinez, Nina Marie. ¡Caramba!
Trujillo, Carla. What Night Brings
Viramontes, Helena Maria. The Moths and Other Stories

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