This course is organized under the thematic of the US/Mexico borderlands, and will work through a selection of fictional texts that prompt critical reevaluations of the historical formation of the US/Mexico border. Yet rather than taking the US/Mexico border in geographic and historical isolation, this course is anchored in a selection of fictional texts that figure the borderlands as a hemispheric epicenter of the Americas.

By thinking about the US/Mexico borderlands in terms of the history of the Americas as a whole, we will work through texts that employ a variety of fictional genres and techniques in order to think about the relationship between history, narrative, representation, and violence. In doing so, this course will dwell on the following questions: How do fictional texts represent political borders and national histories? What is the relationship between fiction writing, historical knowledge, and social violence? How do some of the contemporary forms of violence that mark the US/Mexico borderlands resonate with earlier historical moments? How are these forms of violence connected to epistemologies of race, gender, sexuality, and class?

English 242 meets the university “W” requirement, which means that students must produce 10-15 pages of graded, out-of-class writing, which must be significantly revised. This will take the form of two 5-7 page papers.

Primary Texts:
-Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko (1991)
-Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashta (1997)
-The Mixquiahuala Letters by Ana Castillo (1986)
-The Hammon and the Beans and Other Stories by Américo Paredes (1994)

There will also be a photocopied reader with theoretical and historical readings available at the Ave. Copy Center