Graduate
Areas
Ethnic and Third-World Literature
This is a pioneering program of study inspired by the contributions of peoples and cultures long neglected by the traditional disciplines of literature within the academy, including third-world cultural theory (Carter, Harlow, Heng, Limón), women of the third world (Harlow, Heng), African-American literature (Jones, Wilks, Richardson, Woodard), theories of race, ethnicity, nation, and transculturalism in premodern contacts (Heng), Chicano literature and theory (Limón), U.S.-Mexico literary relations (Limón), African literature and drama (Lindfors), contemporary Spanish-American fiction (Rossman), Native American literature (Cox), and Irish post-colonial studies (Cullingford).
Work in this field is enabled by the important developments in theory and critical inquiry that have changed literary studies in recent decades. A specialization in Ethnic and Third-World Literatures envisions participation on the part of faculty and students in the opening of the canon to new literatures and the opening of the university to new constituencies.