SYLLABUS FOR ENGLISH 630DEM – DEMONIZATION IN AMERICA, 1930S & 1940S

Robert Oscar Lopez: 722 Sierra Tower/

Course Overview: This course will be a multicultural approach to the high period of fascism – the 1930s and 1940s – though most of the works we will study were written after that period, looking back at it and trying to understand how human nature, even in democratic America, failed to stop the rise of fascist thought. The role that demonization of “others” played in the world’s fascist moment will be of especial importance, not only because of the severity of conflict in the 1930s and 1940s, but also because multiculturalist beliefs must be re-evaluated and interrogated when readers confront the cultural scapegoating of this particular era.

Course Requirements: This seminar shall culminate in a 10-12 page research paper, worth 70% of the grade in the course. Each student will also be asked to deliver two ten-minute presentations worth 10%, with one presentation focusing on historical context and the other text focusing on cultural meanings; in total the presentations are worth 20% of a student’s grade in the course. Participation will be worth 10%.

Schedule of Readings: Please note that texts with an asterisk are available through the campus bookstore, while those with a footnote are available through the Oviatt Library course reserve (online).

1. Week I (8/27) -- Introduction

· “Discipline and Demonize.”[1]

2. Week II (9/3) Psychologizing Germany

· Downfall (film) and selected scenes of Sound of Music. The film Downfall will be on course reserve. Sound of Music scenes will be played in seminar.

· Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich.*

· Euripides. Medea.[2]

3. Week III (9/10) Representing the Holocaust

· Sophie’s Choice (film) and Life is Beautiful (film). Will be available on course reserve.

· Chapters 1-4 of Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism.[3]

· Presenters: Sarah Dean [c], Lilit [c], Christina Nalbanian [c], Jessica Glick [h]

4. Week IV (9/17) Psychology of Internment

· Okada, John. No-No Boy.*

· Chapters 1-2 of Edward Said’s Orientalism.[4]

· Presenters: Stacy Bieber [h]. Isabel Casas [c], Morgan Mayreis [c], Lilit [h]

5. Week V (9/24) The Psychology of Collective Rape

· Chang, Iris. Rape of Nanking.*

· Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club.*

· Presenters: Andzhela [c], Pierre [h]. Arthur [h]. Leah Horwitz [c].

6. Week VI (10/1) The Psychology of Subjection

· Excerpts from Myung Mi Kim’s Commons and Under Flag.[5]

· Excerpts from Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha.[6] 23-53.

· Excerpts from Peter Duus’ Abacus and the Sword. 397-438.[7]

· Presenters: Sia Mozarrifehmer [c], Eric Kim [c].

7. Week VII (10/8) Loss and Lostness

· Bienvenido Santos, “Quicker with Arrows” and “For these Ruins.”[8]

· Hagedorn, Jessica. Dogeaters.*

· Presenters: Sabrina Sterett [c], Amelia Norton [h], Ashley Henry [h], Jason [h]

8. Week VIII (10/15) The Reservation as Historical Voice

· Excerpts of Names, by Scott Momaday.[9]

· Presenter: Sarah Dean [h]

9. Week IX: Segregated Idealism

· A Soldier’s Story (Film), available at Oviatt course reserve.

· Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye.*

· Presenters: Andzhela [h], Amelia & Sabrina [h], Stacey [c]

· Presenters: Christina [h], Jessica [c]

10. Week X: Magical Realist Fascism

· The Devil’s Backbone (film), available at course reserve.

· Excerpts from Helen Graham’s Spanish Republic at War, 390-425.[10]

· Presenters: Sia M [h], Arthur [c], Jason [h], Brett [h].

11. Week XI: Competing Victimologies

· Danticat, Edwidge. Krik Krak.*

· Excerpts from Mary Renda’s Taking Haiti. 1-36.[11]

· Presenters: Ashley Henry [c], Pierre [c], Morgan [h]

12. Week XII: Subtlety as Cultural Fascism

· Ramos’ “The Thief.”[12] 41-52.

· Lispector, Clarice. Family Ties.*

· Carvalho’s “In the Shadow of the Big House.” 76-81.[13]

· Excerpts of Daryle Williams’ Culture Wars in Brazil, 1-25.[14]

· Presenter: Rosalba Ruiz

13. Week XIII: Spectral and Demonic

· Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit.[15]

· Excerpts of The Chicanos.[16] 185-216.

· Presenters: Leah [h], Isabel [h]

14. Week XIV: The Child’s Eye.

· Mohr, Nicholasa. Nilda.*

· Presenter: Eric Kim , Rosalba Ruiz

---

[1] Paper by professor.

[2] A version of this play will be available through Oviatt reserves.

[3] Source: Goldberg, Jonah. Liberal Fascism. New York: Doubleday, 2007.

[4] Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.

[5] These selections will be very brief, simply a few poems picked from Kim’s two collections.

[6] Source: Cha, Theresa Hak Kyung. Dictee. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1995.

[7] Source: Duus, Peter. Abacus and the Sword. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1995.

[8] Source: Santos, Bienvenido. Scent of Apples. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1955.

[9] Source: Momaday, Scott. The Names: A Memoir. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1976.

[10] Source: Graham, Helen. Spanish Republic At War: 1936-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

[11] Source: Renda, Mary. Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of US Imperialism, 1915-1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

[12] Source: Modern Brazilian Short Stories. Trans. William L. Grossman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

[13] Source: One Hundred Years After Tomorrow: Brazilian Women’s Fiction in the 20^th Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.

[14] Source: Williams, Daryle. Culture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime 1930-1945. Durham: Duke University Press, 2001.

[15] Valdez, Luis. Zoot Suit. In Zoot Suit and Other Plays. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1992. 23-94.

[16] Source: Meier, Matt S. and Feliciano Rivera. The Chicanos: A History of Mexican Americans. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.