Lehrende/r: Dr. Bärbel Höttges
Veranstaltungsart: Proseminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan: Proseminar II
Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Unterrichtssprache: Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 45
Anmeldegruppe: Proseminar II - American Studies
Prioritätsschema: Senatsrichtlinie Zulassung gemäß Richtlinie über den Zugang zu teilnahmebeschränkten Lehrveranstaltungen vom 07. März 2007. Nähere Informationen hierzu entnehmen Sie bitte www.info.jogustine.uni-mainz.de/senatsrichtlinie
Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches: Students are expected to have read all books before classes begin. There will be a quiz on all the reading material on the first day of class. Passing this quiz is the prerequisite for final admission to the course.
Inhalt: Passing—the attempt to claim a racial or ethnic identity that one does not “possess” according to social or historical conventions—has been an important phenomenon in American literature and culture since colonial times. Light-skinned African Americans in particular have often decided to deny their black heritage in order to gain access to white privileges such as education, social mobility, or financial security. The stories of and about those who decide to pass question the category of race, and they suggest a fluid, performative sense of identity, which resists official categorizations and subverts traditional models of identity and identity formation. This course will serve as an introduction to the various forms of and motives for passing and deal with its social and cultural implications. While we will focus on the phenomenon of passing in American literature, our reading will also include theoretical works dealing with the notion of race and theories of passing. Please order and read the following books: - Griffin, John Howard. Black Like Me. 1960. New York: Penguin, 1996. (ISBN-13: 978-0451192035) - Larsen, Nella. 1929. Passing. New York: Penguin, 2003. (ISBN-13: 978-0142437278) - Johnson, James Weldon. 1912. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. New York: Penguin, 1990. (ISBN-13: 978-0140184020) - Roth, Philip. The Human Stain. 2000. London: Vintage, 2005. (ISBN-13: 978-0099282198)
