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Lit7-474 Ethnicity and Literature: The Greek American Paradigm./Fall
2004.
This course familiarizes the students with the concepts of ethnicity and diaspora.
Essays by Frederic Barth, Khatchig Tölölyan, provide the sociological and
anthropological context for the discussion to follow. We also read excerpts from the
work of historians/sociologist Charles Moskos on Greek American identity politics.
Required primary reading of includes the work of Konstantinos Kazantzes, Demetra
Vaka Brown, Theano Papazoglou Margaris, H. M. Petrakis, Olga Broumas, Irini
Spanidou, and others. We also screen films by directors and script writers Elia Kazan
(America-America, The Arrangement), A. I. Bezzerides (Thieves Highway, Beneath
the Twelve Mile Reef), H. M. Petrakis (A Dream of Kings). Issues discussed involve
ethnicity and gender, cultural «transliterations», identity politics, constructions and
deconstructions of «home».
Syllabus
Primary Reading
Prose, Short stories
Κωνσταντίνος Καζαντζής (1910) From Iστορίες της πατρίδος μου
«Aντί προλόγου»
«H Στραγγαλισμένη»
Helen Papanikolas (1996) From The Apple Falls from the Apple Tree. «County
Hospital, 1939», «Neither Nose, Nor Ass», «The People Garden», «The Apple
Falls from the Apple Tree».
Demetra Vaka Brown. (1914) From A Child of the Orient : «In the Wake of
Columbus; «The Real America.»
Θεανώ Παπάζογλου Mάργαρη (1962) «H άλλη Eυγενία.»
Elias Kulukundis. From (1967) The Feasts of Memory: «Arrival.»
Nicholas Gage. From Eleni (1983) «The Path to the Ravine.»
Novel
Irini Spanidou. (1986) God’s Snake.
Films.
America-America (1963).
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A Dream of Kings (1969).
Do You Wanna Dance? (2000).
Δεύτερη πατρίδα (1999).
Secondary Reading.
Dan Georgakas. «The Greeks in America.»
Charles Moskos. «The Sociology of Greek Americans.»
Khachig Tölölyan. «The Nation and Its Others: In Lieu of a Preface.» Diaspora, 1.1
(Spring 1991): 3-7
Weekly Assignments.
7/10-Introduction-(Greek
Americans-“Δεύτερη
πατρίδα”)-Ethnicity
14/10-
Diaspora-«Aντί προλόγου-H στραγγαλισμένη»21/10 A Child of the Orient-«H άλλη
Eυγενία»28/10-ΑΡΓΙΑ 4/11-America-America 11/11-«Arrival», «The Path to the
Ravine» 18/11--A Dream of Kings 25/11 The Apple Falls from the Apple Tree
2/12 The Apple Falls from the Apple Tree 9/12-God’s Snake 16/12 God’s Snake
23/12 Do You Wanna Dance.
Additional Secondary Sources
Marcus Banks. (1996) Ethnicity: Anthropological Constructions.
Avtar Brah. (1996). Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities.
John Bodnar. (1985) The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America.
Rey Chow. (1993) Writing Diaspora: Tactics of Intervention in Contemporary
Cultural Studies.
Mary Dearborne. (1986) Pocahontas' Daughters:Gender and Ethnicity in American
Literature.
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. (1993) Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological
Perspectives.
Elizabeth Ewen. Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars.
Herbert Gans. (1979) On the Making of Americans.
Milton Gordon. (1964) Assimilation in American Life.
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John Higham. (1984) Send These to Me Immigrants in Urban America.
--------------. (1981) Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism.
Alexander Karanikas. (1981) Hellenes and Hellions: Modern Greek Characters in
American Literature.
Nash, Manning. (1989) The Cauldron of Ethnicity in the Modern World.
Charles Moskos. (1988) Greek Americans: Struggle and Success.
E. P. Panagopoulos. (1960) New Smyrna: An Eighteenth Century Greek Odyssey.
Theodore Saloutos. (1979) "Greeks." In Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic
Groups.
Alice Scourby. (1984) Greek Americans.
Werner Sollors. (1986) Beyond Ethnicity.Consent and Descent in American Culture.
--------------------. (1989) The Invention of Ethnicity.
Thernstrom, Stephan. (1979) Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups.
Το corpus πωλείται στη «Σελήνη» Κωνσταντίνου Μελενίκου. Τα βιβλία
Κωνσταντίνος Καζαντζής Ιστορίες της πατρίδος μου από τον κύριο
Καρόπουλο Αγίας Θεοδώρας 3 (δρόμος μεταξύ Καρόλου Ντηλ και Αγίας
Σοφίας).