Writing and Experience

MIT students bring rich cultural backgrounds to their college experience. This course explores the splits, costs, confusions, insights, and opportunities of living in two traditions, perhaps without feeling completely at home in either. Course readings include accounts of growing up Asian-American, Hispanic, Native American, and South-East Asian-American, and of mixed race. The texts include selections from Maxine Hong Kingston's _The Woman Warrior_, Kesaya E. Noda's "Growing Up Asian in America," Sandra Cisneros's _Woman Hollering_ _Creek_, Gary Soto's "Like Mexicans," Sherman Alexie's _The Toughest Indian in the_ _World_, Jhumpa Lahiri's _Interpreter of Maladies_, the movies _Smoke Signals_ and _Mississippi Masala_, Danzy Senna's _Caucasia_, and others. We will also use students' writings as ways to investigate our multiple identities, exploring the constraints and contributions of cultural and ethnic traditions. Students need not carry two passports in order to enroll; an interest in reading and writing about being shaped by multiple influences suffices. Level: Beginner. Free course materials from MIT OpenCourseWare including lecture notes, assignments, and exams.