Topic:  "America through Foreign Eyes" -- Lecture TR; Discussion
WF

Since its founding, the United States of America has drawn both
visitors and new residents to its shores.  Some came as
journalists, some as tourists, some to make new homes, and many
of these people wrote about their experience.  Using a variety of
20th-century materials--novels and short stories, autobiography,
memoirs, and film--this course will look at American culture and
society through foreign eyes.  For the purposes of this course,
"foreign" writers will include some works by African-American and
Native American writers who, although least foreign because here
the longest, have often felt like strangers in the land and who
give poignant and telling glimpses at the dominant white culture.
Much as a trip abroad or to another region of the U.S. helps us
to see our own hometown differently, this journey through
foreigners' experience should stimulate us to look at our own
culture through different eyes.

The course will meet twice a week in large lecture and twice a
week in small discussion sections.  Students will write four
formal papers and many shorter exercises, some in class.  There
will be a midterm and final exam.

Readings will be drawn from the following list:

Abraham Cahan, _The Rise of David Levinski_ (1917)--excerpts
Sandra Cisneros, _The House on Mango Street _(1984)
Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany, _Having Our Say:  The Delany
Sisters' First 100 Years_ (1993)--excerpts
Louise Erdrich, _Tracks_ (1988)
Eva Hoffman, _Lost in Translation:  A Life in a New Language__
(1989)
Gish Jen, _Typical American_ (1991)
Lydia Minatoya, _Talking to High Monks in the Snow_ (1992)
Toni Morrison, _The Bluest Eye_ (1970)

Plus a reader containing short selections by Julia Alvarez,
Robert Olen Butler, Lars Eighner, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes,
Zora Neale Hurston, Gus Lee, Bharati Mukherjee, Amy Tan, and
others.