INGL 6029: Special Topics in Literature

For this semester, the course will focus on the Literature of the Puerto Rican Diaspora and how it relates to the overall study of migrant, U.S. Latina/o, and U.S. literature. Students will gain broader knowledge of the literary production of Puerto Rican writers in the US in a wider scope of literary genres (memoir, fiction, essay, poetry, and drama) through the introduction of topically based textual studies. In addition, students will explore how historical contexts, cultural values, linguistic merging, and sites of difference (i.e., race, class, gender, and sexuality) intersect in the creation of the literary works and how they influence perceptions and interpretations of literature. Finally, students will be acquainted with the growing body of literary criticism regarding these works.

Some of the primary introductory contextual and critical readings for this course are the following:

Edna Acosta Belén and Carlos Santiago – Puerto Ricans in the US: A Contemporary Portrait. (2018)

Jorge Duany – The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States. (2002)

Juan Flores – Divided Borders: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity. (1992)

Lisa Sánchez- González – Boricua Literature: A Literary History of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. (2001)

Ed Morales – Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of PR. (2019)

(See syllabus for other primary and secondary texts).

The primary literary texts to be analyzed in the course include the following:

Bernardo Vega – Memoirs of Bernardo Vega (1984, Juan Flores Translation)

Luisa Capetillo – A Nation of Women: An Early Feminist Speaks Out

Jesús Colón – The Way it Was and other Stories

Piri Thomas – Down These Mean Streets