FRLN 330: Topics in World Literature
FRLN 330-DL1: Borders and Migration: Border-Crossing Narratives & Human Rights in Fiction & Film
(Fall 2021)
Online
Section Information for Fall 2021
In this course we will study human rights issues in recent border-crossing narratives by migrants and refugees, as well as in films that focus on their experiences of isolation, discrimination, adaptation and community-building. We will learn basic notions and concepts in border studies, immigration studies, intersectionality theory and human rights discourse, and will apply them to the study of autobiographical narratives, novels, poetry, artwork and films about migrants and their experiences crossing borders. Readings will focus on crossings of the US-Mexico border, the borders of Europe and Australia and the experience of migrants from Mexico and Central America, Africa, and the Middle East. They include Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987), selections from Jason De León’s The Land of Open Graves (2015), Valeria Luiselli’s Tell Me How It Ends (2017), Tahar Ben Jelloun’s Leaving Tangier (2006), selections from Wendy Pearlman’s We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria (2017), and Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains (2019). Films may include ¡Alambrista! (1977), El Norte (1984), Frontières (2002), Human Flow (2017), Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time (2017), Sleep Dealer (2008), and relevant scenes from classical 20th-century movies and documentaries about migration. Main objectives of this course include fostering comparative critical thinking, interdisciplinary research, and ethical commitment in the study of cultural production.
MASON CORE LITERATURE COURSE. Class taught in English.
Prerequisites: ENGH 101 or equivalent.
FRLN 330 DL1 is a distance education section.
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Course Information from the University Catalog
Credits: 3
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.
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