Danny's Great Life

This course comprises extensive analyses of the ways in which American ethnic writers engage ontologies of self in characters who attempt to move beyond and out of the existential panic of being seen before they are seen. The direction of the course will move from introductory readings in Existential literature to the promise of Americaness (i.e., Romanticist notions of self) in traditional American literary works to the legislated self in works by writers of color to modernist and postmodernist pastiche by various ethnic American writers. Though the course does not presume a familiarity with concepts of Existentialist philosophy, it does presume a willingness and ability to read closely and apply the concepts that will be covered over the course of the semester.

- Dictee, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

- Hunger and other stories, Lan Samantha Chang

- My Year of Meats, Ruth Ozeki

- …y no se lo trago la tierra, Tomas Rivera

- American Son, Brian Ascalon Roley