SPAN 365: The Chicano Novel
Description
Focuses on the reading and analysis of selected Chicano writers whose novels have left a distinctive mark on Chicano Literature. Emphasizes the understanding of Chicano cosmology (society, culture, behavior, values) through the literary texts. No prior knowledge of Spanish required.
Units: 4
Course Reflective Narrative:
Focuses on the reading and analysis of selected Chicano writers whose novels have left a distinctive mark on Chicano Literature. Emphasizes the understanding of Chicano cosmology (society, culture, behavior, values) through the literary texts. No prior knowledge of Spanish required.
Units: 4
Course Reflective Narrative:
This course fulfilled the Major Learning Outcome 3: Secondary Culture by having students learn about and compare a second culture with their target language’s culture. In this course, we read several novels on Mexican and Mexican-American culture. This course was an eye-opening experience for me, since this was not a course I would have taken normally and the novels showed the struggles that many people can relate too. However, I struggled with a bit of a language barrier some of the times, as all the novel included Spanish words and phrases that I could not understanding. I ended up going to my dad a lot of the time for explanations, since he speaks some Spanish and grew up near the border of Mexico. I was able to get a deeper understanding of the novels from my dad’s experience of life in a border town, the course lectures and the classroom discussions. I also learned about the cultural ideals, behavior and products of the Mexico and the conflict that came about when many Mexican families immigrated to the United States. From everything that I learn from this course, I would like to see if there is any similarity with Japanese-American who immigrated over and what they faced once there were in the United States. In the paper that I wrote for Bless Me, Ultima, the main character and how analytical he is of the different religious beliefs in his community, one of them being centered around the Golden Carp (see Essay 1). One of the last novels we read was Desert Blood, which is based on the horrific events that are taking place in Juarez, Mexico, which touches on the topics of gender discrimination and government corruption. This was the theme that I decided on for my final paper (see below).
Work Completed:
~Essay 1
PDF
~Final Paper:
PDF
Work Completed:
~Essay 1
~Final Paper: