RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF LATINO AND HISPANIC CARIBBEAN STUDIES LHCS 01:595:295: Latino and Caribbean Cultural Studies Professor Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel Course description This course reviews the comparative study of Latino and Caribbean cultural production through aesthetic, historical, sociological and scientific definitions of culture. The class begins with a chronological review of key definitions of culture. The second part of the course reviews some of the key debates in the study of culture in Caribbean and Latinos studies, such as the links between historical experience, ethnicity, race and culture, the quest for and critique of national and ethnic identities, populism and studies on popular culture, the cultural contacts paradigm and hybridity, the multicultural debate, the Culture Wars of the 1980s, gender and queer studies, the study of cultures in displacement, the ethnic turn in cultural studies, the analysis of visual cultures, and the emergence of pop, media and electronic cultures. Each session will include theoretical readings and cultural texts different disciplinary perspectives. We will read theoretical works by Ferdinand de Saussurre, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bordieu, Raymond Williams, Franz Boas, José Vasconcelos, Fernando Ortiz, Frantz Fanon, Gloria Anzaldúa, Mary Louise Pratt, Sylvia Wynter, Antonio Cornejo Polar, Néstor García Canclini, Shalini Puri, Hayden White, Terry Eagleton, Robin Kelley, Alicia Arrizón, José David Saldívar, and Juana María Rodríguez among others. Cultural texts include: the Créolité Collective from Martinique, Culture Clash, Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa, Richard Rodríguez, Pedro Pietri, Lourdes Casal, Ana Lydia Vega, Guillermo Gómez Peña, Josefina López, Luis Rafael Sánchez, Yolanda López, Santa Contreras-Barraza, and Yaoni Sánchez, among others. Requirements: Spanish reading knowledge strongly recommended. The class will be conducted in English and all the required readings will be available in English. Credit not given for both this course and Comp. Lit 01:195:295. Course Structure: Students will read approximately 70-120 pages per week and write brief commentaries on some primary texts. Even though the course is organized thematically, a chronological and geographical approach will also inform class discussions. Each primary text will be introduced through a brief lecture, followed by group discussion. Texts: Most readings will be available on Sakai. The following books are required readings and are available at the Rutgers Library, at amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com: Tato Laviera. AmeRícan. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2003. ISBN-10: 1558853952, $10.16 Josefina López, Real Women Have Curves. CITY: Dramatic Pub. Co., 1996. ISBN-10: 0871297256, $7.50
Learning goals: 1. Students will learn key definitions of culture, paying attention to the historical and disciplinary development of the term, as well as the key debates on cultural studies in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. 2. The course will teach students how to approach studies of culture using an interdisciplinary approach. 3. Students will become familiar with major debates and particular definitions of culture that have been used in the articulation of Latino and Caribbean studies. 4. Students will learn writing skills, through essay exams written in class, workshops conducted during class time to work on peer-editing of their essays, and by writing and re-writing three short reflexiones on the primary texts analyzed in class. 5. The course will also cover a basic historical chronology for Caribbean from 1865 until the present, as well as an overview of the constitution of Hispanic and Latino communities in the United States from 1848 until today. 6. Students will learn to distinguish between sociological and historical studies of Caribbean and Latino populations. 7. Students will learn how to conduct historically grounded analysis of literary, visual and performative cultural manifestations. Evaluation: Class Attendance and Participation 10% 3 reflexiones or 3-4 pages reaction papers 30% Midterm 15% 2 essay exams written in class 20% Pop quizzes 10% Partial Exam on the day of the final exam 15% Requirements: 1. Three brief reflexiones (1-2 pages, double spaced) written in English and typed. Each reflexión will be a commentary of the main topic and discursive strategy developed in one of the primary texts. If a rewrite is needed, the student must complete the revision of each reflexión before the deadline for the next written exercise, or the rewrite will not be graded. Rewrites will only be accepted if the first version of the essay was handed in on time. 2. One in-class midterm.. 3. Two in-class essay exams (open-book exercises). 4. One partial test will be administered as a final exam. 5. Weekly pop quizzes on the assigned reading will be administered at the beginning of the class (during the first 10 minutes). Arriving late will cause the student to miss the quizz. No make-ups are offered for missed quizzes. Grade for quizzes is usually calculated using a curve that is based on the highest score.
6. Attendance and participation are expected. Students should come to each class having read the assigned texts and ready to participate in the discussion. Participation will be graded based on attendance, active intervention in class, quizzes, and preparation of short assignments that will be presented in class (such as oral reports on some of the critical readings, as well as on some of the primary literary and audiovisual materials studied in the course). Participation grade will be lowered 10% after 3 absences with no medical excuse or a letter from the dean. Three late arrivals are equivalent to one absence. 7. Grade scale for the department is the following: A = 93 100; B+ = 89 92; B = 81 88; C+ = 77 80; C = 70 76; D = 65 69; F= 64 and below. 8. Papers, quizzes, assignments and exams should be completed by the dates announced in the syllabus. There will be no make-ups for any of the class assignments, and in case of illness students must provide a medical excuse or a letter from the dean to request any extensions or make-ups. 9. The department has a writing tutor to help our students in writing their class papers. Please go to the department s webpage and locate the contact information under the link for LHCS Writing Tutor. For more information see the following link: http://latcar.rutgers.edu/writingtutor.htm 10. Plagiarism is not allowed in class. If a student uses any ideas from another person without properly acknowledging the sources used, the evaluation of her/his work will be suspended and the case will be referred to the University s administration. Plagiarism is understood as follows: Plagiarism is the representation of the words or ideas of another as one's own in any academic exercise. To avoid plagiarism, every direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks or by appropriate indentation and must be properly cited in the text or in a footnote. Acknowledgment is required when material from another source stored in print, electronic, or other medium is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in one's own words. To acknowledge a paraphrase properly, one might state: "to paraphrase Plato's comment..." and conclude with a parenthesis identifying the exact reference by including the last name of the author and the page number from the book or article. Each essay or paper should also include a bibliography at the end, with the full bibliographical entry for each source used. A footnote [or endnote] acknowledging only a directly quoted statement does not suffice to notify the reader of any preceding or succeeding paraphrased material. Information which is common knowledge, such as names of leaders of prominent nations, basic scientific laws, etc. need not be referenced; however, all facts or information obtained in reading or research that are not common knowledge among students in the course must be acknowledged. In addition to materials specifically cited in the text, only materials that contribute to one's general understanding of the subject may be acknowledged in the bibliography. Plagiarism can, in some cases, be a subtle issue. Any questions about what constitutes plagiarism should be discussed with the faculty member (4).
For more information, see the following websites: http://latcar.rutgers.edu/academichonesty.html http://wp.rutgers.edu/courses/201/plagiarism_policy/plagiarism_defined.html Course Syllabus: Week # 1: Culture/Language/Knowledge Sausurre, Third Course on General Linguistics, selection on the definition of the Sign, (selections). http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/saussure.htm Mignolo, Walter. "'An Other Tongue': Linguistics Maps, Literary Geographies, Cultural Landscapes." In Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton: Princeton UP, 217-49. Swidler, Ann. 1986 "Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies," American Sociological Review 51 (April): 273-286. Cultural text: Using linguistics to define culture: The creolization debate in the Caribbean: Bernabe, Chamoiseau and Confiant, In Praise of Creoleness (1980). Week # 2: Culture/Language/Knowledge Michel Foucault, Representing and The Limits of Representation, The Order of Things, 46-77, 217-250. Bourdieu, Pierre, Chap 3: Structures, Habitus, Practices. The Logic of Practice, pp. 52-65. Walter Mignolo, Chapter 2, The Materiality of Reading and Writing Cultures, The Darker side of the Renaissance, pp. 69-124. Cultural Text: Tato Laviera, AmeRícan. Week # 3: Scientific Definitions of Culture: Biological Anthropology, Ethnography, Archaeological cultural studies Raymond Williams, Culture Structures of Feeling The Sociology of Culture, Marxism and Literature, pp. 11-20, 128-135, 136-144. Clifford Geertz, Thick Description: Toward and Interpretive Theory of Culture, The Interpretation of Cultures, pp. 3-32. Jerome Kagan, Characterizing the Three Cultures, The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century, pp. 1-50. Terry Eagleton, Culture and Nature, The Idea of Culture, pp. 87-111. Cultural Text: Clarice Lispector, The Smallest Woman in the World REFLEXION # 1 Week # 4: Cultural Contacts: Inculturation/Acculturation/Transculturation Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), selections; A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term (1967), selections; Marshall Sahlins, Two or Three Things I know About Culture. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 5.3 (1999): 399-421. Fernando Ortiz, The Social Phenomenon of Transculturation and its Importance, Cuban Counterpoint, pp. 97-102.
Mary Louise Pratt, Introduction: Criticism in the Contact Zone, Imperial Eyes, 1-12. Cultural Text: Culture Clash in Americca, Bordentown (http://cultureclash.com/25- years-of-culture-clash) First Essay Exam in Class Week # 5: The Racial Turn: Ethnicity, Race and Culture Fanon, Frantz. "Racism and Culture." In Toward the African Revolution. New York: Grove Press, 1967. pp. 29-44. Wynter, Sylvia. "Race and Our Biocentric Belief System: An Interview with Sylvia Wynter." In Black Education. Edited by Joyce King. Mahway, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005. pp. 361-7. Antonio Cornejo-Polar, Mestizaje, Transculturation and Heterogeneity, Latin American Cultural Studies Reader. Alicia Arrizón, Introduction: The Cultural Politics of Queering Mestizaje Queering Mestizaje, pp. 1-16. Cultural text: Culture Clash in Americca, Bordentown Nuyorican Stories. (http://cultureclash.com/25-years-of-culture-clash) Week # 6: Latin American Studies: the ensayo culturalista (1930s-1980) José Vasconcelos, The Cosmic Race, selections. Octavio Paz, The Pachuco and Other Extremes, The Sons of La Malinche, The Labythinth of Solitude, pp. 9-28, 65-88. Cultural text: Richard Rodríguez, Hispanic, The Third Man, Brown, pp. 103-144. Santa Contreras Barraza. Visual works on Malinche (1991-1992). (Website Figuration Féminine) Gigi Otálvaro Hormillosa, Cosmic Blood, Performance (http://hidvl.nyu.edu/video/000117773.html) (19.5 minutes) MIDTERM Week # 7: Culture of Poverty, Culture of Dependency Lewis, Oscar. La vida: a Puerto Rican family in the Culture of Poverty San Juan and New York. New York: Vintage Books, 1966. (selection) Robin Kelley, Introduction, Looking for the Real Nigga, Yo' Mama's Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars In Urban America. pp. 1-14, 15-42. Paul Tough, Unequal Childhoods Whatever it Takes: Geoffrey Canada s Quest to Change Harlem and America, pp. 21-52. Cultural Text, Pedro Pietri, Puerto Rican Obituary. Week # 8: Cultural Contacts Again: Hibridity, Multiculturalism Néstor García Canclini, Hybrid Cultures, Oblique Powers, Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity, pp. 206-263. Shalini Puri, Theorizing Hybridity: Caribbean Nationalisms, The Caribbean Postcolonial, pp. 43-80. Serge Gruzinski, Mélange and Mestizo, The Mestizo Mind, pp. 17-32. Cultural Text: Re-Imagining Guadalupe: Yolanda López, Alma López and Judith Baca, La Mestizaje (visual arts)
REFLEXION #2 Week # 9: The Culture Wars in the 1980s: Disciplinary crisis in and Fictionalization of the Object of Study Hayden White, The Question of Narrative in Contemporary Historical Theory, The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation, pp. 26-57. Nestor García Canclini, Cultural Studies from the 1980s to the 1990s: Anthropological and Sociological Perspectives in Latin America, Latin American Cultural Studies Reader, Duke UP. Terry Eagleton, Culture Wars, The Idea of Culture, 51-86. James Clifford, On Ethnographic Allegory, Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, pp. 98-121. Cultural text: Ana Lydia Vega, Cloud-cover Caribbean, Lourdes Casal, The Founders: Alfonso Week 10: Gender, Sexuality and the meaning of Subcultures Lawrence LaFountain-Stokes, The Persecution of Difference, Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities of the Diaspora, pp. 1-18. Dick Hebdidge, Introduction, From Culture to Hegemony, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, 1-21. Cultural Texts: Luis Rafael Sánchez, Hum! ; Sonia Rivera Valdés, Five Windows on the Same Side Second Essay Exam in Class Week # 11: Cultures in Displacement: Migration Studies James Clifford, "Traveling Cultures." Cultural Studies. Ed. Laurence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula Treichler. London: Routledge, 1992. 96-117. Douglas Massey, New Migrations, New Theories ; Contemporary Theories of International Migration, Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millenium, pp.1-16; 17-59. Cultural text: Guillermo Gómez Peña, Free-Falling Towards a Borderless Future, Borderama, 15 Ways of Relating Across the Border, The New World Border, pp. 1-4, 127-154, 165-168. Week 12: Redefining American Studies: Ethnic/Latino/ Chicano/American Studies Jose David Saldivar. Introduction: Tracking Borders, Cultural Theory in the U.S. Mexico-Borderlands, Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies, 1-16, 17-35. Frances Negrón Muntaner, Weighting in Theory: Puerto Ricans and American Culture, Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture, pp. 3-32. Ricardo Ortiz, Diaspora and Disappearance, Cultural Erotics in Cuban America, 1-42. Cultural Text: Josefina López, Real Women Have Curves, play (1996). Film clip: Real Women Have Curves (2002). Nikki S. Lee "The Hispanic Project," "The Hip Hop Project" y "The Yuppie Project." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nikki_s._lee)
Week # 13: Visual Arts: Visualizing Difference Carolyn Dean, The Trouble with (the Term) Art, Art Journal 65, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 24-32. Gerardo Mosquera, "Good-bye identity, welcome difference. From Latin American art to art from Latin America." Third Text, Volume 15, Issue 56, 2001, pp. 25-32. Nestor García Canclini, "Remaking Passports: Visual Thought in the Debate on Multiculturalism" in Nicholas Mirzoeff, The Visual Culture Reader. Routledge (2002). Roland Barthes, Rhetoric of the Image, Image, Music, Text, pp.32-51. (Notes about Rhetoric of the Image, pdf). Cultural Text: Dulce Pinzón, Superheroes, Photography. (http://www.dulcepinzon.com/en_projects_superhero.htm) REFLEXION #3 Week # 14: From Third Cinema to You Tube: Pop, Media and Electronic cultures What is Third Cinema? ( http://thirdcinema.blueskylimit.com/thirdcinema.html) Juana María Rodríguez, Confessions of a Cyber-slut, Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces, pp. 114-152. Robert Latham and Sassia Sasken, Digital Formations: Constructing an Object of Study, Digital Formations: IT and New Architectures in the Global Realm, pp. 1-34. Cultural Texts: Yaoni Sánchez, Generation Y (http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/) You Tube: Willie Perdomo, Niger-Rican Blues