Mexican American Studies (MXAS)

An introduction to the area of Chicano Studies including the cultural, historical, and linguistic approaches. This basic course includes the study of major authors, significant historical events, and important linguistic considerations.

Studies folklore through selected examples of traditional Mexican and Mexican American culture.  Possible topics include:  folk songs, folk healing, folk art, foods, testimonials, tales, proverbs, riddles, or other cultural element characteristics of the Mexican American experience.

An analysis of Chicano literature. Special emphasis will be given to the new consciousness of the Chicano in the most current literature of the various genres.

The course familiarizes students with Chicana playwrights and plays representative of Chicana feminist and queer thought, using an historical framework to establish distinctive periods in Chicana Theater from the 1980s to the present. Themes related to socio-political circumstances, as well as the construction and representation of race, class, gender, and sexuality and their relationship to identity will be explored through literary analysis and theory.

May be repeated when topics vary.